When Lyceum Capital invested in Clearswift back in 2011, one of the stated aims was to bolster “technical functionality through further product development and targeted acquisitions.” The technical functionality can be seen in the technology that Clearswift describes as ‘adaptive redaction’ now coming on stream. Adaptive redaction is the term given to the various options for controlling the dissemination of sensitive data; either within the network, out of the network, and even into the network.
While traditional data loss prevention tends to recognize sensitive documents and just ‘stop and block’ them, adaptive redaction allows custom controls based on the specific content of the documents based on deep content inspection. For example, if the only reason to ‘block’ a document is that it contains a credit card number or social security number, adaptive redaction will recognize the sensitive data, redact just that data, and allow the document to continue.
Now Clearswift has announced the first of Lyceum’s promised targeted acquisitions – a small Australian firm with ‘innovative’ patents in end-point data loss prevention. It is an excellent fit – while it doesn’t change the nature of Clearswift’s offerings, it extends the reach of adaptive redaction from just network DLP to network and endpoint integrated DLP. The Jedda team, under its co-founder Kym Welsby, will continue to operate as the Endpoint Security Solutions division of Clearswift.
Jedda’s intellectual property targeted by Clearswift includes pattern, keyword and fingerprinting, as well as integration with LDAP/Active Directory to enable people and groups to be taken into consideration for the DLP policies.
Basically, Clearswift’s senior vice president of products told Infosecurity, “These are the same as Clearswift already has, but are done on the endpoint rather than the network. They do have some novel fingerprint technology that we will incorporate, but basically they are ‘compatible’ with what we do. Hence the ability to integrate our policies easily – providing our clients with simple deployment, configuration and operation. Consistency across both network and endpoint, as well as the ability to scan and protect ‘data at rest.’”
“The aim of this pivotal acquisition,” announced CEO Heath Davies in a blog posting, “is to integrate the innovative Endpoint content-aware endpoint DLP solution from Jedda into our existing world-class products and will be available in the first half of 2014. The new integrated solution will set Clearswift apart as providing the full capability of Network, Endpoint and Discovery DLP offerings.”