By Kimberly Koerth

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting mergers in Q1 2014.**

Security-as-a-service provider Proofpoint has acquired security incident response company NetCitadel for approximately $24 million.

The acquisition extends the reach and capabilities of Proofpoint’s existing advanced threat solutions, adding additional threat verification and containment capabilities via an open platform that unifies products from Proofpoint and other vendors. The unification of disparate threat intelligence data combined with automated incident response enables security professionals to respond to threats faster, in a more scalable way, and with higher confidence and accuracy, the company said.

“Loss of customer records and other sensitive information can begin within minutes of a system compromise, yet it typically takes organizations hours or days to respond to and contain an attack,” Proofpiont CEO Gary Steele said. “By leveraging NetCitadel’s … technology, organizations can close this critical gap and dramatically reduce the risk of significant data loss. This technology is a natural complement to our cloud-based offerings and allows us to deliver a comprehensive advanced threat solution to all organizations, regardless of their existing IT security infrastructure.”

Proofpoint also launched a new cloud-based solution, Proofpoint Content Control, for control of confidential, private and regulated data. The solution is an addition to Proofpoint’s Enterprise Privacy suite and provides visibility and control over sensitive content such as customer records, patient information and credit card data across the enterprise.