Digital Guardian

Formerly	Verdasys
Industry	Data security
Founded	2003; 22 years ago (2003) (as Verdasys)
Headquarters	Waltham, Massachusetts , U.S.
Number of locations	U.S. (Washington, D.C., Sunnyvale, California) U.K. Japan India[1]
Area served	Global
Key people	Mo Rosen President & (CEO) Susan Walker (CFO) Constance Stack (CMO) Debra Danielson (CTO) & SVP, Engineering
Products	Data loss prevention software Application whitelisting software Cloud data protection software Advanced threat protection software
Brands	Digital Guardian
Services	Managed security services
Number of employees	375[2] (2016)
Website	www.digitalguardian.com

Fortra's Digital Guardian is one of Fortra's core Data Protection solutions, which specializes in data loss prevention and secure collaboration software products. These software products detect and prevent malware infection on endpoints and unsafe actions by end users—be they malicious or unintentional—that put data at risk of a breach. The software is designed to protect individual user endpoints along with corporate networks, servers, databases, and the cloud.

Fortra's Digital Guardian was founded in 2003 under the name Verdasys.^[3] Verdasys' flagship product was Digital Guardian, a data-centric security platform that monitors and encrypts all proprietary or sensitive information passing through a desktop, laptop, or enterprise server. In 2008, Verdasys launched SiteTrust, an encryption software service for banks, brokerages, and other big companies that were legally liable for losses from online fraud and served their customers over the Internet.

In 2010, an agreement between Verdasys and Fidelis Security Systems (now Fidelis Cybersecurity) enabled customers to acquire and implement an integrated solution consisting of Fidelis XPS network appliances and Digital Guardian enterprise information protection in a single offering from Verdasys.^[4]

In early 2012, Verdasys expanded its data leak prevention portfolio to the cloud to help enterprises protect their data stored on their networks and reduce costs. Two new offerings were introduced: Managed Service for Information Protection (MSIP) and Information Protection as a Service (IPaaS), offering data protection as a managed service. Furthermore, the Digital Guardian platform completed EAL2+ evaluation under the Communications Security Establishment's Common Criteria Evaluation and Certification Scheme in December 2012. The following year, Verdasys introduced its data connector—dubbed Digital Guardian Connector—that used alerts generated by the FireEye appliance (now part of Trellix) to gather actionable data and automate incident response.

In early 2014, former McAfee executive Ken Levine joined the company as CEO and focused on simplifying its product. In March of that year, Verdasys raised $12 million in venture funding, bringing the company's total capital raised to $69 million.^[5] The funding round was led by investors GE Pension Trust and Fairhaven Capital along with a new, individual investment from Brookline Venture Partners.^[6] That same month, Identity Finder LLC (now known as Spirion) and Verdasys announced a partnership to integrate Identity Finder’s Sensitive Data Manager enterprise solution with Verdasys’ Digital Guardian and Managed Service. Five months later in August 2014, Verdasys rebranded to Digital Guardian and increased its employee headcount to 150.^[7] Two months later, Digital Guardian acquired Armor5 to extend the data protection, visibility, and control of the Digital Guardian agent to cloud applications and mobile devices.^[8]

In May 2015, Digital Guardian then acquired Savant Protection, integrating its application whitelisting solution to extend the Digital Guardian endpoint security platform to fixed-function devices, defend against Advanced Persistent Threats, zero day attacks, and unknown malware, and facilitate PCI compliance.^[9][10] Two months later in July 2015, Digital Guardian was named as a founding member of Blue Coat Systems' Alliance Ecosystem of Endpoint Detection and Response, which allows the sharing of actionable intelligence gathered from endpoint security solutions.^[11][12] That same month, Digital Guardian and IT consulting firm Atos announced a partnership to deliver a cloud-based data loss prevention service to the European market.^[13][14]

In October 2015, Digital Guardian acquired Code Green Networks and integrated its TrueDLP™ solution, which included network, discovery, and cloud DLP in an all-in-one, appliance-based solution.^[15][16] The following December, Digital Guardian announced $66 million in new funding—the firm's largest round since it was founded. Returning investors included GE Pension Trust (advised by GE Asset Management), Fairhaven Capital Partners, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge, Special Situation Funds, and Brookline Venture Partners. New investors were LLR Partners, Mass Mutual Ventures (the corporate venture capital arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company), and the venture unit of Siemens Financial Services. By the end of 2015, Digital Guardian raised $135 million since its founding.^[17][18]

Nearly six years later in October 2021, Digital Guardian was acquired by the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based cybersecurity firm HelpSystems and added to its Data Security solution portfolio.^[19] HelpSystems rebranded as Fortra in November 2022, after which Digital Guardian was renamed as Fortra's Digital Guardian. It is now a part of Fortra's Data Protection portfolio within the greater Data Security portfolio alongside Fortra's Data Classification (formerly Titus and Boldon James).

Digital Guardian's Endpoint DLP captures and records all system, user, and data events on organizations' endpoints and provides the ability to protect, monitor, and block specific actions.^[20]

Digital Guardian's Cloud Data Protection extends its data loss prevention capabilities to cloud applications and storage, providing repository scanning, encryption, and auditing capabilities along with the automated remediation of sensitive data based on user activity.^[21]

Digital Guardian's automated Data Discovery appliance scans local and network shares using discovery-specific inspection policies to locate sensitive data.^[22]

Digital Guardian's Network DLP monitors and controls the flow of sensitive data through multiple communications channels, including email, Web, File Transfer Protocol, Secure Sockets Layer, and applications such as webmail, blogs, and other social media.^[23]

Digital Guardian's Analytics & Reporting Cloud (ARC) correlates and analyzes system, user, and data events from endpoint agents and network appliances.^[24]

Digital Guardian's Management Console facilitates the setup and deployment of agents and policies across an organization and provides access control and policy-making capabilities.^[25]

In March 2024, Digital Guardian and cloud security company Lookout, Inc. announced a partnership and introduced their joint Secure Service Edge (SSE) solution, which secures access and maintains control over sensitive data on employee devices accessing public or private cloud apps. The solution integrates cloud access security broker (CASB), zero trust network access (ZTNA), and secure web gateway (SWG).^[26]

Digital Guardian's Secure Collaboration solution, formerly known as Vera Security, protects files with AES 256-bit encryption and enables dynamic changing of permissions and access to data.^[27] This solution also serves as a component of Digital Guardian's Zero Trust File Transfer product bundle.^[28]

Digital Guardian’s Managed Security Program (MSP) is a service that outsources organizations' hosting, administration, and management of their data security platforms to Fortra's in-house security experts. Digital Guardian offers MSP for Endpoint DLP, Detection & Response, and DLP for small to midsize businesses.^[29]