Fortinet Inc. has acquired Next DLP Inc., a startup that helps enterprises ensure their workers interact with internal data in a secure manner.

The companies announced the deal today without disclosing the financial terms. According to PitchBook, Next DLP raised more than $10 million in funding prior to the acquisition.

Sunnyvale, California-based Fortinet provides firewalls for blocking malicious network traffic, vulnerability detection software and other cybersecurity products. It also sells a line of networking devices. Fortinet’s installed base of more than 750,000 customers generated $1.43 billion in revenue last quarter, up 10.9% from the same time a year earlier.

Next DLP offers a cloud-based cybersecurity platform called Reveal. The software can monitor how a company’s workers interact with its internal data and identify potential cybersecurity risks. Reveal could, for example, spot attempts to sync a sensitive business document to a personal Dropbox account and block them.

The platform detects cybersecurity risks with the help of an agent, or lightweight program, that it installs on workers’ devices. The agent collects data on how employees interact with business records. Reveal organizes this data into a log that describes when a given file was created, how many times it has been moved across employee devices or cloud applications and whether it was edited along the way.

It also correlates the information it collects about file usage against the MITRE Insider Threat Knowledge Base. This is a database of common hacking tactics maintained by MITRE Corp., a nonprofit research organization. If user interactions with a file match one of the malicious activity patterns in the database, Reveal notifies administrators about the issue.

Next DLP provides a cloud-based dashboard for investigating breaches that its platform detects. According to the company, a built-in chatbot dubbed XTND AI automates some of the manual tasks involved in the process. The chatbot can, for example, generate a natural language summary of an incident in which a business document was accessed by a user without permission.

The company says its platform doubles as an employee training tool. When Reveal blocks an action such as an unauthorized file download by a worker, it can display a pop-up that explains why internal policies prohibit such downloads. Companies may also include a link to cybersecurity training materials.

“Next DLP will significantly strengthen our data loss prevention capabilities, helping customers manage insider risk across SASE and endpoint deployments,” said Fortinet founder and Chief Executive Officer Ken Xie.

The deal comes about two months after the company purchased Lacework Inc., another venture-backed cybersecurity startup. The latter acquisition bought Fortinet a platform that can spot insecure code in enterprise applications, vulnerable cloud environment settings and other risks. Lacework raised about $1.9 billion from investors prior to the deal. 

Photo: Fortinet