Accenture Helps Organizations Strengthen Cloud Security with Google Cloud

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 11, 2026--

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today announced an expansion of its strategic partnership with Google Cloud to help organizations stay ahead of escalating AI-driven cyber threats, from hyper-personalized social engineering to autonomous malware. The collaboration helps better deliver unified, intelligence-led cyber defense by combining the Google Security Operations platform and Accenture’s global cybersecurity services.

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As cybercriminals weaponize advanced AI tools to bypass traditional defenses, the blind spots in fragmented multi-cloud environments have shifted from a technical challenge to a critical business liability. This collaboration provides the connective tissue between the human expertise and cloud-native technology required to move from reactive cyber defense to proactive business resilience.

“Agentic AI isn’t just reshaping cyber defense strategies, it’s redefining how we secure operations, introducing new levels of complexity for organizations protecting their businesses,” said Rex Thexton, chief technology officer at Accenture Cybersecurity. “Combining the collective strengths of Google Cloud and Wiz with Accenture’s cybersecurity expertise, we are uniquely positioned to help organizations eliminate security blind spots and efficiently secure their cloud-powered digital core against the next generation of automated threats.”

By deploying the Google Security Operations platform with the Accenture Cybersecurity AI Migration Factory, organizations can also accelerate SIEM transitions, reducing migration efforts while improving threat detection. These combined capabilities strengthen protections across development, deployment and runtime, helping to ensure a seamless, unified and governed cybersecurity posture for the enterprise.

Internally, Accenture’s Information Security team is also deploying Wiz across its global cloud footprint to identify and resolve risks faster, reinforcing its commitment to best-in-class cloud security and responsible AI adoption. As a long-time partner of both Wiz and Google Cloud, Accenture will be a key partner to customers as they continue to integrate their security stacks across both platforms.

“Our partnership with Accenture further strengthens our ability to deliver cloud security offerings and provide customers with a comprehensive solution,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President, Global Partner Ecosystem at Google Cloud. “Together, we’re bringing the best in technology and services to help organizations of all sizes protect themselves from cyber threats.”

Andy Ritchie, VP Worldwide Channels and Alliances at Wiz said, “Wiz helps customers protect everything they build and run, giving teams the visibility and context they need to adopt new technologies and move faster with confidence. We’re excited to work with Accenture to help more customers innovate at the speed of their business while staying secure at every stage of their cloud journey.”

Recently, Accenture was recognized as the highest Leader on the Everest Group Cloud Security Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2025 out of 18 service providers.

For the third consecutive year, Accenture has been named Google Cloud Global Services Partner of the Year and won the Google Cloud Partner global award for Artificial Intelligence – Innovation and Solutions in 2025, reinforcing Accenture's work in helping clients modernize and innovate securely through Google Cloud.

About Accenture
Accenture is a leading solutions and services company that helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed across the enterprise, bringing together the talent of our approximately 784,000 people, our proprietary assets and platforms, and deep ecosystem relationships. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work in the world. Through our Reinvention Services we bring together our capabilities across strategy, consulting, technology, operations, Song and Industry X with our deep industry expertise to create and deliver solutions and services for our clients. Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, and we measure our success by the 360° value we create for all our stakeholders. Visit us at accenture.com.

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 its anticipated benefits and risks and uncertainties related to the development and use of AI, including advanced AI, could harm our business, damage our reputation or give rise to legal or regulatory action, 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.

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Accenture today announced an expansion of its strategic partnership with Google Cloud to help organizations stay ahead of escalating AI-driven cyber threats, from hyper-personalized social engineering to autonomous malware.

A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone prescriptions.

Friday's unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in person and at clinics, overruling regulations set by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

The ruling, which is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, is the biggest jolt to abortion policy in the U.S. since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to enforce abortion bans.

In the ruling, Judge Kyle Duncan, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, agreed with the state of Louisiana's contention that allowing the drug to be mailed there makes moot the state's ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy.

“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” the ruling states.

Mifepristone was approved in 2000 as a safe and effective way to end early pregnancies. It is typically used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.

Surveys have found that the majority of abortions in the U.S. are provided via pills and that about 1 in 4 abortions nationally are prescribed via telehealth.

One survey of abortion providers last year estimated that more women in states where abortion is banned obtained abortions that way than by traveling to other states.

Some Democratic-led states have laws that seek to protect providers who prescribe via telehealth to patients in places with bans.

That rise in prominence is why abortion opponents have targeted the pills in legislation and litigation.

There is little precedent for a federal court overruling the scientific regulations of the FDA, and it wasn’t immediately clear how quickly or completely the decision would impact mailing of the drug throughout the country.

Judges have long deferred to the agency's judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs.

FDA officials under Trump have repeatedly stated that the agency is conducting a new review of mifepristone’s safety, at the direction of the president.

The judges, all nominated by Republican presidents, noted in their ruling that the FDA “could not say when that review might be complete and admitted it was still collecting data.”

Because of rare cases of excessive bleeding, the FDA initially imposed strict limits on who could prescribe and distribute the pill — only specially certified physicians and only after an in-person appointment where the person would receive the pill.

Both those requirements were dropped during the COVID-19 years. At the time, FDA officials under President Joe Biden said that after more than 20 years of monitoring mifepristone use, and reviewing dozens of studies involving thousands of women, it was clear that women could safely use the pill without direct supervision.

GenBioPro, which makes generic mifepristone, said in a statement the court’s decision “ignores the FDA’s rigorous science and decades of safe use of mifepristone in a case pursued by extremist abortion opponents.”

In a court filing, Louisiana’s attorney general and a woman who said she was coerced into taking abortion pills requested that the FDA rules be rolled back to when the pills were allowed to be prescribed and dispensed only in person.

A Louisiana-based federal judge last month ruled that those allowances undermined the state’s abortion ban but stopped short of undoing the regulations immediately.

Friday's ruling is in effect as the case works its way through the courts and extends beyond Louisiana and states with abortion bans.

Telehealth prescriptions have become common even in states where abortion is allowed — and the ruling blocks them there, too.

“This is going to affect patients’ access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation,” said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer. “When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of color suffer the most.”

The National Right to Life Committee said the ruling “restores a critical layer of oversight" in women’s health.

“Women deserve better than an abortion-by-mail system that prioritizes ideology over safety," said Carol Tobias, the group’s president.

Danco Laboratories, another mifepristone manufacturer and a defendant in the lawsuit, asked the appeals court Friday after the ruling to put its order on hold for one week to give the company time to “seek relief” from the Supreme Court. If the court does not grant the request, the company said it will file an emergency appeal with the high court.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court overturned abortion as a nationwide right in 2022 but unanimously preserved access to mifepristone two years later.

That 2024 decision sidestepped the core issues, however, by ruling that the anti-abortion doctors behind the case didn’t have legal standing to sue.

“I look forward to continuing to defend women and babies as this case continues,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, said in a statement.

Representatives for the FDA and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday evening.

In the meantime, anti-abortion groups are celebrating Friday's ruling. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, applauded the ruling as “a huge victory for victims and survivors of Biden’s reckless mail-order abortion drug regime.” She also criticized the Trump administration for taking time to conduct its own review of mifepristone, saying its slow movement has forced states to take action.

“Women and children suffer and state sovereignty is violated every day the FDA allows abortion drugs to flood the mail,” Dannenfelser said.

Associated Press reporters John Hanna, Matthew Perrone and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed.

FILE - Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks with the news media, Oct. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)