Digital Guardian Acquires Savant Protection

WALTHAM, MA, May 12, 2015 – Digital Guardian, the only endpoint security platform purpose built to stop data theft, has acquired Savant Protection, a provider of advanced application whitelisting solutions.

Savant Protection^TM delivers the most secure application whitelisting solution which defends endpoints and servers from Advanced Persistent Threats, zero day attacks and unknown malware. The company was founded in 2006 and launched its application whitelisting solution, Savant Enforcer^TM, in 2007. Enforcer utilizes a unique whitelist on each individual endpoint which eliminates the single-point failure risk inherent with a central whitelist approach. Easy to administer through an administrator console or the local user interface, Savant Enforcer is capable of protecting endpoint systems against malicious applications whether they are on the corporate network or fully disconnected.

The acquisition of Savant Protection and the Savant Enforcer product enables Digital Guardian to:

• Extend its endpoint security platform to fixed-function devices including point-of-sale systems (POS), industrial control systems (ICS), Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and SCADA systems.
• Enhance Digital Guardian’s policy-driven app control capability with the industry’s most flexible endpoint and user-driven application whitelisting approach.
• Strengthen the current Digital Guardian PCI compliance solution by adding a “trusted change management layer” required to meet many of the PCI-DSS v.3.1 controls.

Savant Enforcer, Version 5.1, is generally available today and installed on hundreds of thousands of endpoints globally. It will continue to be sold as a discrete product by Digital Guardian until the technology is fully integrated into the Digital Guardian Endpoint Security Platform in late 2015. For more information please contact [email protected]

Executive Perspective

Ken Levine, president and chief executive officer, Digital Guardian

 “Digital Guardian is committed to delivering the highest level of data protection against all threats and across all endpoints. With the acquisition of Savant Protection, the company is able to deliver on that vision by extending our data protection capabilities to fixed-function devices including point-of sale and industrial control systems. In addition, as we continue to build the next-generation endpoint security platform, Savant Protection’s agent functionality will be seamlessly integrated into our existing DG agent for a completely integrated solution. This will not only reduce the burden of agent-fatigue corporations are currently experiencing on their endpoints, but it will also reduce the amount of vendors needed to meet their complete data protection needs.

Rene Thibault, vice president of sales and services, Savant Protection  

“Malicious applications are one of the most common threat actions leveraged by cyber criminals and advanced threat actors today. With known application vulnerabilities and zero days, an attacker can leverage the application layer to compromise systems, install malware and steal sensitive data. By acquiring Savant Protection, Digital Guardian can offer an effective way of preventing these attacks and providing yet another layer of data protection.”    

Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst, ESG

“Given the increase of attacks on point-of-sale systems in the retail space, in addition to the extremely vulnerable state of security in the critical infrastructure market, extending endpoint security to fixed-function devices is critical in order to fully protect organizations’ complex and diverse infrastructure. With the acquisition of Savant Protection, Digital Guardian can now securely protect these vulnerable systems while providing organizations with a complete data protection solution that fully meets their endpoint security needs.”

About Digital Guardian
Digital Guardian is the only data-aware security platform designed to stop data theft. The Digital Guardian platform performs across traditional endpoints, mobile devices and cloud applications to make it easier to see and stop all threats to sensitive data. For more than 10 years, it has enabled data-rich organizations to protect their most valuable assets with an on premise deployment or an outsourced managed security program (MSP). Digital Guardian’s unique data awareness and transformative endpoint visibility, combined with behavioral threat detection and response, let you protect data without slowing the pace of your business.