CrowdStrike to buy AI security firms Fiddler, Dreadnode

CrowdStrike ↘ 1.50% has signed definitive agreements to acquire two artificial intelligence security startups, Fiddler AI and Dreadnode. The company announced both deals on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at its Fal.Con Europe conference in Barcelona. CrowdStrike did not disclose terms. The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↗ 4.15%, which reported the deals first, said the two together are worth $495 million, with about $400 million going to Fiddler and about $95 million to Dreadnode. The purchases are part of a broader push by CrowdStrike to monitor and control AI agents as companies deploy them faster than security teams can set up controls.ir.crowdstrike.com+1

Watching agents, testing models

Fiddler was founded in 2018 and is based in Palo Alto, California. Its software tracks what AI agents do and explains why they do it. CrowdStrike will sell it on its Falcon platform as Falcon Observe, with general availability planned for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027. The product will cover pre-deployment evaluation of agents, tracing of their decisions and tool calls, and detection of hallucinations and behavioral drift in production.wsj.com+1

"When a regulator or your board asks what an agent did, saying 'the model did it' is not an answer," said CEO George Kurtz. "Fiddler is the flight recorder for every agent".ir.crowdstrike.com

Dreadnode was founded in 2023 and builds offensive AI security tools. Users describe in plain language what they want tested, and the platform runs more than 100 known attack strategies, including jailbreaks and prompt injection, against models, agent reasoning loops, applications and MCP servers. Its findings will feed into Falcon Guardian as policy recommendations, and its team will join CrowdStrike's Cyber Superintelligence Lab. "AI fails in ways traditional testing was never designed to catch," said Dreadnode CEO Brad Palm.crowdstrike.com

Deal terms and timing

CrowdStrike will pay for both deals mostly in cash, with part of the price paid in stock that is subject to vesting conditions. Both are expected to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027, subject to customary closing conditions. That fiscal year ends Jan. 31, 2027.securityweek.com+1

A string of acquisitions

At the same event, CrowdStrike launched an AI Kill Switch in Falcon Guardian. It lets an authorized administrator stop a rogue agent and cut off its network access. Unlike the two acquired products, the kill switch is available now.thenextweb.com

CrowdStrike has kept buying companies over the past year. In January it announced deals for identity security firm SGNL at $740 million and browser security company Seraphic at a reported $420 million. In September 2025 it agreed to acquire AI security firm Pangea. Fiddler had raised $100 million in total funding, including a $30 million Series C in January. Dreadnode raised $14 million in a Series A in early 2025.securityweek.com