I’ve been to the RSA Conference so many times that I’ve lost count. But it never gets old. What I love most about the show is the energy, as so many cybersecurity professionals get together to tackle the most pressing challenges facing our industry.
And I am thrilled to be working at Proofpoint in an area where I started my cybersecurity career: data security. When I began, Symantec was the big kahuna of data security with its acquisition of Vontu. RSA was also making a go of it in this space with its acquisition of Tablus. Fast-forward almost 20 years and Symantec customers are flocking to alternatives such as Proofpoint. They’ve been “Broadcomed” by high license fees and the fact that the solution cannot address modern data security challenges such as securing intellectual property and the use of generative AI.
That’s why I'm thrilled to share some exciting news: Proofpoint is the only vendor to earn the "Customers' Choice" distinction in the 2024 Gartner® Voice of the Customer for Data Loss Prevention report.* In addition, we've achieved another major milestone: Proofpoint is now the market-share leader in data loss prevention for cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. According to Gartner’s Market Share: Enterprise Software, Worldwide, 2024 research, Proofpoint market share in this area stands at 24%.** While there is no shortage of new entrants touting eye-catching valuations and bold promises in the data security space, many of these vendors have yet to show significant customer adoption or revenue traction. When Proofpoint meets these vendors in customer evaluations, Proofpoint wins. And we will continue to do so.
Because our winning track record isn’t just about market share: it’s also about innovation. Last week, Proofpoint debuted the industry’s first unified data security solution. Our solution combines data loss prevention (DLP), data security posture management (DSPM) and insider threat management into a single, unified architecture. This integrated approach to data security strengthens protection against today’s threats and establishes an architecture for safely scaling data security in an agentic AI future.
To those ends, Proofpoint’s data security solution now includes the following new capabilities:
Unified policy engine — Proofpoint is the first to deliver a unified policy engine across DLP, DSPM, and insider threat management. This groundbreaking approach ensures consistent enforcement of data security policies to prevent data exfiltration and reduce data exposure risks across email, endpoints, SaaS and cloud or on-premises data stores.
Nexus data lineage — Proofpoint enriches behavioral-based and content-centric controls with cross-channel data lineage, powered by a highly scalable and flexible Nexus data activity graph. This groundbreaking capability not only provides end-to-end visibility into data flows for incident response—tracking content from its origin through all manipulations, down to egress channels—but also enables security teams to apply controls based on a file’s location and contextual intelligence.
Figure 1: Nexus data lineage visualizes data origin and tracks manipulations across channels. Data security teams can quickly and efficiently investigate potential data loss and insider incidents and apply controls.
Real-time AI-powered data classification — Proofpoint transforms sensitive data classification with Nexus AI Data Classifiers. Pre-trained large language model (LLM) classifiers, available today, accurately identify sensitive data, such as company IP, with unmatched precision. They discover information that previously stayed hidden and unprotected due to the limitations of legacy approaches. Building on this foundation, Proofpoint will introduce agentic AI auto-learning capabilities that dynamically evolve classification schemes based on an organization’s unique sensitive data.
Figure 2: Nexus AI data classifiers accurately identify sensitive data that previously stayed unprotected due to the limitations of legacy approaches.
Automated adaptive DSPM controls for greater efficiency — Proofpoint delivers one-click remediation capabilities to remove excessive privileges and prevent data exposures for cloud and on-premises data stores, reducing manual effort for data security teams. These capabilities use Nexus AI-powered data classification to accurately identify sensitive data and risks.
Figure 3: Proofpoint Data Security Posture Management removes excess privileges and prevents data exposure with one-click remediation controls, reducing manual effort for data security teams.
Proofpoint’s leadership isn’t measured just by innovation and market share. It’s also reflected in the trust and satisfaction of our customers. We’re proud to be the only vendor recognized as a 2024 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for Data Loss Prevention. This recognition highlights our commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience and driving real-world results. In addition, Proofpoint was named a 2024 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for Insider Risk Management, one of only two vendors to earn this distinction. This further validates our ability to deliver effective, human-centric security solutions that address today’s most pressing data and insider risk challenges.
Interested in learning more? Meet us at RSA Conference if you are coming this week, or join our upcoming webinar.
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