LevelBlue has signed a definitive agreement to
acquire Aon’s Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property Litigation consulting groups, Stroz Friedberg and Elysium Digital. This move puts the company right where managed security, digital forensics, and breach response come together.
The acquisition brings together LevelBlue’s strength in cloud-based MDR and MSSP services with Aon’s consulting legacy, creating a more complete cybersecurity and risk management platform.
According to
Robert McCullen, CEO of LevelBlue, “LevelBlue is already one of the largest pureplay MSSPs in the world, striving to simplify cybersecurity for businesses. Our acquisition of Aon’s cybersecurity and IP litigation consulting business unlocks several advantages for LevelBlue and our customers. First, this acquisition enhances LevelBlue’s capacity and capabilities across adversary simulation, penetration testing, incident response planning, real-time breach response, and digital forensics, enabling LevelBlue to offer full-spectrum advisory services to our customers before, during and post-breach. Second, the Stroz Friedberg legacy that comes with this business and its reach into the world’s largest and most respected law firms puts LevelBlue in a unique position to tighten and close the loop in pre- to post-breach readiness and response. Finally, as part of this transaction, LevelBlue and Aon have agreed to a strategic partnership to offer LevelBlue cybersecurity services to its customers to help global organizations achieve their cybersecurity and cyber risk management outcomes.”
The integration of Stroz Friedberg’s incident response and forensics capabilities will help LevelBlue close a key gap in traditional MDR offerings, such as the limited support during actual breach response events. McCullen added, “One of the biggest gaps that we see with today’s MDR solutions is that they are strong on Detection but weak when it comes to Response. The Stroz Friedberg legacy is not only best-in-class with respect to digital forensics and incident response but also when it comes to incident readiness. LevelBlue plans to integrate these capabilities into our MDR offering to provide customers with true world-class incident readiness and response, delivered as a managed service. Operationally, from a security and compliance perspective, it means that our customers will be better prepared before a breach ever occurs but will also be better served afterwards, which will help significantly in meeting and exceeding regulatory and insurance requirements.”
Beyond the technical integration, LevelBlue also sees strategic value in expanding its partnerships within the cyber insurance and legal ecosystem. With a strengthened consulting bench and legacy relationships across Am Law 100 firms and major insurers, the company is aiming to offer a more holistic approach to cyber risk.
“LevelBlue already has a strong suite of go-to-market channel partnerships that include AT&T, technology service distributors, and hundreds of MSSPs,” said McCullen. “This acquisition extends our go-to-market reach to include Aon, other insurers, law firms, and compliance regulators. This puts LevelBlue in a unique position to become a full-service provider of cybersecurity and risk management services to businesses of all sizes across all industries. We will continue to enhance and grow all of our channel partnerships, but believe that the separation of the Stroz Friedberg business from Aon will also open LevelBlue up to additional insurers as channel partners.”
With this acquisition, LevelBlue is not only scaling up its services but also reshaping its role in the cybersecurity ecosystem, bridging detection, response, litigation support, and advisory services into a unified offering.
