Proofpoint Inc., a leading cybersecurity and compliance company, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Tessian, a leader in the use of advanced AI to automatically detect and guard against both accidental data loss and evolving email threats. The acquisition is expected to close in late 2023 to early 2024, subject to customary closing conditions, including any required regulatory approvals.

Proofpoint protects organizations against social engineering attacks by applying award-winning AI and large language models (LLMs) to block threats and provide real-time threat insights. AI-based detection has proven to be notably effective in identifying threats targeting people, such as email fraud and supplier-based attacks, and preventing data loss due to negligent or malicious actions. With the acquisition of Tessian, Proofpoint will enhance its threat and information protection platforms by adding powerful layers of AI-powered defense that address risky user behaviors, including misdirected email and data exfiltration.

Misdirected emails (sending emails to the wrong recipient) and mis-attached files continue to be a leading cause of compliance violations and accidental data loss for organizations according to Ponemon research: in 2022 alone, 65% of all data loss incidents occurred via email, and nearly two-thirds of organizations experienced data loss or exfiltration due to an employee mistake on email. As a result, it takes security teams 48 hours, on average, to detect and remediate a data loss and exfiltration incident caused by employee negligence.

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“Far too often, human errors with email lead to organizations putting their own and their customer’s data at risk, breaching industry and data protection regulations and losing mission-critical intellectual property,” said Darren Lee, executive vice president and general manager, Security Products and Services Group, Proofpoint. “By combining Proofpoint’s best-in-industry data, detection stack, and efficacy with Tessian’s advanced behavioral and dynamic detection platform, we can provide our customers with world-class defense and instant protection. Proofpoint channel partners can quickly bring value to their customers with these new, easy-to-deploy solutions that integrate natively with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.”

“Our long-standing vision to secure the human layer has been the driving force behind our innovative platform offering inbound email security, as well as outbound data loss prevention,” said Tim Sadler, chief executive officer, Tessian. “By joining forces with Proofpoint, we can empower organizations to further improve their email security posture, reduce the risk of data breaches, and lighten the workload on their security teams.”

SOURCE: GlobeNewswire