Proofpoint Targets Workplace AI Risks With Acuvity Buy

Proofpoint is adding agentic workspace protection to its cybersecurity platform by acquiring Acuvity.

Acuvity delivers AI enterprise security and governance, while Proofpoint offers cybersecurity and compliance, the companies said in a Friday (Feb. 13) press release.

With the acquisition, Proofpoint will enhance its platform’s ability to provide AI-native visibility, governance and run-time protection for AI and agent-driven workflows, according to the release.

These capabilities will enable the platform’s users to mitigate the risks they face as they deploy AI copilots, autonomous agents and model-connected applications across their organizations, the release said.

The risks posed by these technologies include shadow AI, sensitive data exposure, intellectual property loss, regulatory violations and emerging AI-specific attacks, per the release.

“Together, Proofpoint and Acuvity enable organizations to confidently adopt AI tools and agents with the governance, visibility and control required to manage risk,” Proofpoint Chief Strategy Officer Ryan Kalember said in the release. “By securing humans, defending data and governing AI through a unified platform, Proofpoint is uniquely positioned to protect the agentic workspace end to end, something no other cybersecurity company delivers today.”

Acuvity co-founder and CEO Satyam Sinha said in the release that this combination will help enterprises that have been overwhelmed by the complexity of securing AI adoption.

“In an AI-accelerated world, intelligence is no longer confined to applications or infrastructure; it lives in interactions, decisions and autonomous agents acting on our behalf,” Sinha said. “Securing that future requires a new approach, one that governs how AI thinks, acts and learns in real time.”

The announcement came about two months after Proofpoint completed its acquisition of Hornetsecurity Group, a European provider of AI-powered security, data protection, compliance and security awareness solutions for Microsoft 365.

When Proofpoint announced in May that it planned to acquire Hornetsecurity Group, it said the move would enhance its ability to provide human-centric security to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) around the world through managed service providers.

Proofpoint also announced in May that it acquired U.S.-based Nuclei, a company specializing in compliance archiving and AI-driven data enrichment for workplace communications. The company said this would enhance its digital communications governance offering.

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