Forcepoint last summer unveiled a generative AI solution that extended the data protection capabilities in its Data Security Everywhere platform across GenAI platforms, including integrating with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise Compliance API.
The generative AI technology, which merged a number of Forcepoint’s security service edge (SSE) offerings with its information security tools, was based in part on products from Getvisibility, a six-year-old startup from Ireland that was leveraging AI in its data security posture management (DSPM) solutions.
Forcepoint, based in Austin, Texas, had been collaborating with Getvisibility for about two years, integrating the startup’s technology into its platforms. Now the company is taking the next step, announcing this week that it is buying Getvisibility in a move that will give organizations and MSSPs greater integration of the smaller company’s AI-based tools.
“This acquisition is about taking that collaboration to the next level, giving customers even better tools to manage data risk,” Rick Hanson, president for Forcepoint’s go-to-market programs, told MSSP Alert.
Few details about the deal were released.
Integrating AI
The company will be able to fully integrate Getvisibility’s offering into the Data Security Everywhere platform and making it simpler and more effective, Hanson said. Organizations will get a clear and unified way to manage risk, ensure compliance, and protect data.
Similar benefits will extend to MSSPs, MSPs, and other channel partners, an important point for a vendor that has more than 90% of its business flowing through partners.
“By combining Getvisibility’s AI-driven tech with Forcepoint’s expertise, MSSPs can now offer cutting-edge data security as a service, whether on-premises or in the cloud,” he said. “These solutions help businesses classify, protect, and control their data.”
Expansive Platform Gets Enhanced
Forcepoint’s platform includes a wide array of capabilities, including data loss prevention (DLP), data detection and response (DDR), protection that adapts to risks, data classification, and DSPM. Getvisibility’s platform offers DSPM and endpoint data classification, and underlying all this is the AI technology, in particular its AI Mesh, and a focus on protecting AI environments.
AI Mesh essentially is a network of small language models that are fine-tuned for specific industries and datasets, allowing for more precise data classification and risk detection, according to Hanson.
Such capabilities are important at a time when bad actors are rapidly adopting generative AI and incorporating it into their malicious activities and when more data is being run through AI models, which increases the risks of data leakage and exfiltration.
“On the other, AI is incredibly effective at identifying threats,” Hanson said. “No one does this better than Getvisibility. … With AI-driven threats evolving fast, having AI-driven defense is no longer optional, it’s essential.”
'A Natural Move'
Forcepoint executives had seen the value Getvisibility’s AI was bringing to hundreds of joint customers, so bringing the company and its technology deeper into their Data Security Everywhere platform “was a natural move,” he added.
The deal also follows the ongoing trend in cybersecurity to offer organizations comprehensive and tightly integrated platforms rather than requires them to buy, integrate, and maintain a growing number of disparate one-off products in a sprawling security environment. The average company works with 10 to 15 security vendors and uses 60 to 70 tools.
“Data today is scattered across multiple environments, and businesses often rely on a patchwork of tools to secure it all,” Hanson said. “This approach is costly, inefficient, and leaves gaps that increase risk. A unified platform approach … makes security stronger and more manageable by bringing visibility and control under one roof.”
Building the Platform
Bringing Getvisibility into the fold means fewer tools for organizations, which translates into lower costs, less risk, and fewer resources needed, he said. All of this is enhanced for Forcepoint by the startup’s AI capabilities.
Such thinking – moving from multiple standalone products to a unified platform – also is an asset that MSSPs offer.
Getvisibility’s AI-powered tools like DSPM “pinpoint vulnerabilities such as redundant, obsolete, or misplaced data, helping businesses act faster to mitigate risks through integrated DDR capabilitie,” Hanson said. “Instead of point products, we can deliver full-lifecycle data security solutions that discover, classify, prioritize, protect and monitor, all in one platform.”
