Accenture and SandboxAQ Expand Partnership to Help Organizations Strengthen Data Encryption Today and Protect Against Future Threats

Joint offering increases observability and identification of key cyber risks to enterprise data

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and SandboxAQ are expanding their partnership to address the critical need for enterprise data encryption that can defend against current data breaches, as well as future AI and quantum threats. Together, Accenture and SandboxAQ are helping organizations secure sensitive data and strengthen encryption across their technology portfolios. The joint offering will also provide observability across environments to help increase enterprise resilience and lower impact from third party risks.

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Accenture and SandboxAQ are expanding their partnership to address the critical need for enterprise data encryption that can defend against current data breaches, as well as future AI and quantum threats. (Graphic: Business Wire)

More than half (52%) of CEOs consider the accelerated pace of technology innovation a top risk for cyberattacks, with 86% rating cyber trust and resilience in emerging technologies like generative AI and quantum computing as highly relevant for their organizations, according to research from Accenture.

The research serves as a reminder that strong cryptography management, requiring the latest algorithms to protect systems, processes and data is a foundational pillar to defending against evolving cyber threats. As part of an ongoing commitment to cryptographic excellence, Accenture is introducing a new Encryption Risk Assessment service, integrated with SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard. The service provides clients with deep visibility into risks caused by weak cryptography before these risks have a chance to impact critical data across networks, file systems, and cloud applications.

“The prevalence of generative AI, as well as expected new global post-quantum encryption standards, makes data protection absolutely critical to safeguarding confidential business information and data used to train AI foundational models or used in AI applications,” said Paolo Dal Cin, global lead of Accenture Security. “The reality is that malicious actors are stealing sensitive data now, with the intention of decrypting it later using quantum computers that can break many current encryption methods. Our assessment service enables clients to see potential risks to their data and upgrade encryption to increase protection against ransomware, data theft and manipulation campaigns, and to prepare for future risks from quantum computing. Companies that assess their data encryption level now will be more protected against current attacks and better prepared to mitigate future risks.”

The service can identify risks across important areas including the existence of cryptographic assets such as digital certificates or cryptographic keys, and usage of cryptographic algorithms, both symmetric and public key, as well as any other cryptographic constructions such as hash functions, for a comprehensive view of cryptography use throughout the enterprise. When combined with data security and privacy policies along with governance, risk and compliance guidelines, the assessment delivers prioritized recommendations for remediation action, enabling businesses to act with urgency and agility to protect their overall infrastructure against the most advanced and sophisticated threats, and in their transition to post-quantum technology.

“Our continued collaboration with Accenture will help our largest global 1000 clients defend themselves against advanced AI-driven cybersecurity attacks, protecting their most sensitive data today and tomorrow,” said Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ. “As we help clients discover data that’s vulnerable to current and future attacks, there are many benefits from enhancing their cryptography defenses. The recent global outage from just one software update highlights the need to increase observability across the enterprise.”

To learn more about Accenture’s data protection and quantum security services visit us here.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “aspires,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “positioned,” “outlook,” “goal,” “target” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance nor promises that goals or targets will be met, and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These risks include, without limitation, that the partnership might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture, as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the “Risk Factors” heading in Accenture plc’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 750,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Accenture Security is a leading provider of end-to-end cybersecurity services, including strategy, protection, resilience and industry-specific cyber services. We bring security innovation, coupled with global scale and a worldwide delivery capability through our network of Cyber Fusion Centers. Helped by our team of 23,000 highly skilled professionals, we enable clients to innovate safely, build cyber resilience and grow with confidence. Visit us at accenture.com/security.

About SandboxAQ

SandboxAQ is a B2B company delivering AI solutions that address some of the world's greatest challenges. The company’s Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) deliver critical advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, cyber and other sectors. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022, funded by leading investors including T. Rowe Price, Eric Schmidt, Breyer Capital, Guggenheim Partners, Marc Benioff, Thomas Tull, Paladin Capital Group, and others. For more information, visit https://www.sandboxaq.com.

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