Forcepoint today announced major enhancements to its AI-native Data Security Cloud platform, led by ARIA, the embedded Adaptive Risk Intelligence Assistant that uses natural language to create enforcement policies and accelerate incident response across AI-driven workflows. The company also updated its Global Partner Program, aligning incentives and enablement around Data Security Cloud to help partners deploy and scale modern data security for end-users. Together, these innovations advance Forcepoint’s Self-Aware Data Security approach that knows threats as they form, adapts policies and risk scoring in real time and enforces controls wherever data flows.
A recent World Economic Forum report found that 66 percent of organizations say AI will have the most significant impact on cybersecurity in the next year, yet most lack formal processes to assess AI risk. As AI reshapes how sensitive information is created, transformed and shared at machine speed across cloud platforms, collaboration tools and AI-driven workflows, this always-on data evolves long after creation, widening the gap between visibility and control.
Today’s Data Security Cloud updates address this gap with AI-aware automation, on-device web intelligence and a redesigned partner program that brings Self-Aware Data Security to market at scale. Rather than relying on static policies or routing traffic through a remote proxy before responding, Forcepoint adapts enforcement in real time, closing the distance between detection and action to keep up with how modern workforces leverage AI tools.
Data Security Cloud unifies DSPM, DLP Cloud, Data Detection and Response (DDR), Web and Email security, CASB, RBI, advanced forensics and risk-adaptive protection under a single-policy framework, extending from endpoint to cloud. The platform eliminates multiple point products, making Self-Aware Data Security a practical, day-to-day reality.
Data Security Cloud Delivers AI-Aware Protection at the Speed of Data Creation
The enhancements extend protection to follow sensitive information everywhere, across AI pipelines, analytics platforms and collaboration tools. By unifying discovery, classification, prioritization and enforcement in one continuous loop, Forcepoint enables organizations to move toward Self-Aware Data Security — gaining clarity and confidence to tame data sprawl, safely enable GenAI, contain insider risk and simplify compliance. Key innovations include:
Forcepoint Adaptive Risk Intelligence Assistant (ARIA). Embedded in Data Security Cloud, ARIA understands risk across the platform, identifying gaps such as newly adopted copilots without policy coverage, and generates recommended policies in seconds with clear rationale for administrator review. Teams can quickly create or update policies and deploy them across channels from a single interface, reducing time-to-value and policy expertise requirements. ARIA also streamlines incident response by integrating with existing tools like ServiceNow and Slack, while continuously delivering risk insights powered by Forcepoint’s AI Mesh, which discovers and classifies billions of structured and unstructured data elements.
Next-generation Data Security Everywhere agent. The new agent brings adaptive protection and web intelligence directly to the endpoint, inspecting and protecting data on devices, without forcing traffic through a traditional proxy. It manages precise protection for sanctioned AI apps while blocking sensitive information from reaching unsanctioned AI tools and personal cloud storage. It combines adaptive enforcement, investigation, forensics and user-level awareness in a single agent that supports cloud and on-premises environments, allowing organizations to modernize without sacrificing protection.
Expanded coverage for modern analytics, cloud data lakehouses and AI-driven environments. Forcepoint extended structured data security to cloud data lakehouses such as Databricks and Snowflake, deepened integration with Google Workspace and broadened consistent protection across SaaS, hybrid, endpoint, web and email channels.
Global Partner Program Accelerates Data Security Everywhere
Based on partner feedback, Forcepoint updated its Global Partner Program to align incentives, enablement and deal structures around Data Security Cloud. The redesigned program introduces a simplified three-tier structure with transparent requirements and clearly defined economic benefits at every level, including deal registration margins with no minimum thresholds and deal families aligned to data security use cases. Expanded enablement includes billable capability development to help partners differentiate as trusted data security advisors.
Learn More at AWARE Virtual Event and RSA Conference 2026
Forcepoint will showcase Data Security Cloud enhancements at the AWARE Spring 2026 virtual event on March 4 and during RSA Conference, March 23–26. Both forums will feature real-world use cases and a closer look at the innovations announced today. Register to access on-demand AWARE content at forcepoint.com/aware. RSA attendees can request in-person meetings and demos.
To learn more about Forcepoint Data Security Cloud, read the announcement blog and visit the platform page. More details about the Global Partner Program can be found on this blog and the partner page.
The Media Trust Releases 2026 Intelligence Report: “When Advertising Entered the Cyber Conversation”
Posted in Commentary with tags The Media Trust on March 4, 2026 by itnerdThe Media Trust (TMT), a global leader in digital trust and safety for more than 20 years, today released its 2026 Intelligence Report, When Advertising Entered the Cyber Conversation: A Look Back at 2025 and the Digital Safety Imperative for 2026.
The report documents a defining shift in the digital ecosystem: in 2025, advertising infrastructure was no longer viewed solely as a revenue engine. It became increasingly recognized by regulators, media companies, and the public as part of the cyber risk landscape.
High-profile enforcement actions, evolving government policy initiatives, and increased scrutiny of platform accountability, including measures undertaken by major publishers and global technology companies, signal a clear shift. Neutrality is no longer viable. For publishers, platforms, and brands, ignoring malicious activity within advertising systems carries measurable consequences: reputational damage, regulatory exposure, lost revenue, and growing legal liability.
The question entering 2026 is not whether responsibility exists. It is how organizations will operationalize it.
Drawing on proprietary, real-time threat detection data from The Media Trust’s global infrastructure, which analyzes more than 200 billion ads monthly across 100,000+ digital properties, the report details how malvertising, malicious redirects, cloaked landing pages, and AI-enabled manipulation tactics are actively exploiting advertising systems as scalable attack surfaces.
TMT’s data shows these threats are not random. They concentrate geographically, target specific user communities, and follow monetization pathways designed to extract economic value at scale. Digital crime within the ad ecosystem is structured, repeatable, and increasingly automated.
Key Findings from the 2026 Intelligence Report
Advertising as Infrastructure
Advertising systems now operate as high-speed execution environments for third-party code, making them efficient pathways for malware, fraud, and surveillance when exploited.
AI is Accelerating Both Defense and Attack
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the threat landscape. Attackers are using AI to scale evasion and automate malicious campaigns, while real-time defensive AI has become essential to detecting and blocking harmful activity before it reaches users.
Digital Crime is Local
Threat activity is no longer diffuse. State-by-state and global analysis shows digital attacks concentrate geographically, exposing specific regions and communities to disproportionate risk.
The Human Cost is Measurable
Malicious advertising produces direct financial loss, brand damage, and revenue disruption. Beyond economics, manipulation campaigns and scams increasingly affect vulnerable populations with real-world consequences.
Cybersecurity vs. Digital Safety
The report distinguishes system-level security from human-level safety, arguing that compliance alone is insufficient in today’s data-driven advertising ecosystem.
Accountability is Becoming Enforceable
Regulatory scrutiny, advertiser expectations, and governance standards are converging. Organizations that fail to address malicious activity within monetization systems face mounting reputational, financial, and regulatory risk.
A Call for Industry-Wide Responsibility
The report concludes with what The Media Trust calls The Guardian Imperative: protecting people and protecting profit are not competing priorities, they are operationally linked.
When malicious creatives degrade user trust, traffic declines. Fraud diverts advertiser spend, weak enforcement increases regulatory exposure, and diminished user trust impacts long-term monetization. Consumer protection, brand integrity, and revenue performance are structurally connected within the advertising ecosystem, and weaknesses in one area directly affect the others.
The organizations that invest in proactive threat detection, real-time enforcement, and shared intelligence do more than reduce risk. They strengthen long-term monetization resilience.
Availability
The full 2026 Intelligence Report, When Advertising Entered the Cyber Conversation, is now available at: https://info.mediatrust.com/2026-intelligence-report
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