CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cato Networks vs Lakera

Cato Networks sells the Cato SASE Cloud, a SASE platform built as a global cloud with a single-pass engine, a single data lake and single policy enforcement. Lakera sells AI Red Teaming, AI Agent Security and Workforce AI Security, which together help organizations secure employees, applications, and autonomous agents. CISO Tribune files both under Workforce AI usage security. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Cato Networks
  • Lakera
Cato Networks vs Lakera: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Cato NetworksCato Networks sells the Cato SASE Cloud, a SASE platform built as a global cloud with a single-pass engine, a single data lake and single policy enforcement.catonetworks.comLakeraLakera sells AI Red Teaming, AI Agent Security and Workforce AI Security, which together help organizations secure employees, applications, and autonomous agents.lakera.ai
What it sells
  • Cato SASE Cloud[5]A global cloud with a single-pass engine, a single data lake and single policy enforcement.
  • Cato AI Security[1][5]Secures and governs AI interactions, from third-party AI usage to homegrown AI applications and agents.
  • Cato DLP[11]Data loss prevention with a catalog of 350+ pre-defined data types.
  • DNS Security[13]Inspects all DNS traffic and blocks requests to malicious destinations before a connection is made.
  • AI Red Teaming[1][5][6]A continuous workflow to evaluate, scan, and red team AI applications and agents.
Categories
Headquarters
Tel Aviv, Israel[3]Zurich, Switzerland[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2021[2]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[1][2][4][5][8][11]Owned by Check Point Software Technologies since 2025[3][5]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • October 27, 2026Cato Networks launched Cato AI Endpoint, an endpoint client for discovering AI use, protecting sensitive data and enforcing AI policies across browsers, desktop applications and local agents.[16]
  • August 3, 2026Cato Networks launched Cato Agentic Threat Prevention, a capability using autonomous agents to predict likely attack paths and personalize protections for each customer environment.[17]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[4]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Cato Networks sells mainly to organizations that want to replace point products with a single platform for networking, security and access. Cato Networks says organizations can start with a capability such as SD-WAN, SSE or ZTNA and expand over time. Cato Networks says its managed services let teams choose how much to hand off, from co-managed to fully managed. For data protection, Cato Networks says its DLP is designed for organizations that need to protect sensitive data across distributed users, multiple locations and cloud environments. Cato Networks describes that DLP as suited for security and IT teams looking to consolidate data protection into a single platform.Lakera describes organizations that run AI across employees, applications, and autonomous agents as the audience for its three AI security products. Lakera positions AI Agent Security for organizations that build and deploy agents. Lakera Guard is sold for LLM applications.
Last verified
November 2, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cato Networks and Lakera are both filed under Workforce AI usage security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cato Networks's primary category is SASE and SSE; Lakera's is AI firewalls and guardrails.
  • Cato Networks is also filed under Zero trust network access. Lakera is also filed under AI model and agent security.
  • Cato Networks lists Cato SASE Cloud, Cato AI Security, Cato DLP and DNS Security. Lakera lists AI Red Teaming.
  • Cato Networks is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Lakera is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Lakera was founded in 2021.
  • Cato Networks is privately held. Lakera is owned by Check Point Software Technologies, since 2025.

What it sells: Cato Networks

What Cato SASE Cloud does[5]
Cato's SASE platform converges networking, security and access into a single, global, AI-powered cloud service. Thousands of SPACEs run on bare-metal compute across worldwide PoPs, interconnected by tier-1 carriers.
What Cato AI Security does[1][5]
Cato AI Security secures and governs all AI interactions, from sanctioned third-party AI usage to runtime protection of homegrown AI applications and AI agents. Cato Networks says AI security can be deployed independently to protect AI usage and AI agents across the organization.
What Cato DLP does[11]
Cato DLP offers a catalog of 350+ pre-defined data types covering common use cases for sensitive data, PII, and compliance. The Cato DLP engine inspects all traffic to private applications and SaaS apps. Cato DLP offers inline scanning and policy enforcement tailored for GenAI traffic such as ChatGPT.
What DNS Security does[13]
Cato DNS Security inspects all DNS traffic in real time to prevent malicious activity hiding within the protocol. It protects against phishing, domain squatting, website impersonation, DNS tunneling and crypto-mining activity.

What it sells: Lakera

What AI Red Teaming does[1][5][6]
AI Red Teaming tests with prompt injection, jailbreaks, tool exploitation, and multi-turn attacks against real systems. AI Red Teaming provides exploit validation, severity scoring, and remediation guidance. AI Red Teaming is available for text, audio, image, and multi-modal systems.

Questions about Cato Networks and Lakera

What do Cato Networks and Lakera sell?
Cato Networks sells Cato SASE Cloud, Cato AI Security, Cato DLP and DNS Security. Lakera sells AI Red Teaming.
Are Cato Networks and Lakera in the same category?
They share Workforce AI usage security. Cato Networks's primary category is SASE and SSE and Lakera's is AI firewalls and guardrails.
Where are Cato Networks and Lakera headquartered?
Cato Networks is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Lakera is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.
When were Cato Networks and Lakera founded?
Lakera was founded in 2021.
Who owns Cato Networks and Lakera?
Cato Networks is privately held. Lakera is owned by Check Point Software Technologies, since 2025.
Who are Cato Networks and Lakera sold to?
From its own pages, Cato Networks sells mainly to organizations that want to replace point products with a single platform for networking, security and access. Lakera describes organizations that run AI across employees, applications, and autonomous agents as the audience for its three AI security products.
What have Cato Networks and Lakera announced recently?
October 27, 2026: Cato Networks launched Cato AI Endpoint, an endpoint client for discovering AI use, protecting sensitive data and enforcing AI policies across browsers, desktop applications and local agents.

About Cato Networks

Cato Networks sells the Cato SASE Cloud, a SASE platform built as a global cloud with a single-pass engine, a single data lake and single policy enforcement. Cato Networks describes its SASE platform as converging networking, security and access into a single, global, AI-powered cloud service. Cato Networks states that the platform delivers secure, optimized access from distributed points of presence close to users and business resources.[15]

Cato Networks states that day-to-day planning, scaling and maintenance depend on specialized, hard-to-find expertise. In the company's account, controls differ across users, sites, datacenters and cloud, leaving gaps as applications migrate. Cato Networks positions its platform as a replacement for point products, with a single policy and console running on an SLA-backed global backbone.[6][7]

The core of the platform is the Single Pass Cloud Engine, called SPACE. SPACE converges NGFW, threat prevention, and CASB, DLP and ZTNA into one cloud-native stack. Thousands of SPACEs run on bare-metal compute across worldwide PoPs, interconnected by tier-1 carriers. Every inspected flow feeds network, device, user, app and data context into one open data lake that is accessible through the Cato API. Cato Networks says NGFW, CASB, DLP, ZTNA, threat prevention and AI controls all run on a single policy engine.[6]

On the networking side, Cato Networks carries SD-WAN traffic over a private global backbone. Cato Networks connects sites to the Cato Cloud, where they are managed centrally. For access, Cato Networks offers adaptive, risk-based, zero-trust access to private applications located on-premises or in the cloud. The access methods include ZTNA Client, Enterprise Browser, Browser Extension and Clientless Portal. Cato Networks says these access methods can coexist with current access solutions and be selectively deployed to secure some or all application access.

Cato Networks discovers local, custom and managed agents across the enterprise, including their tools, MCP servers, data access and execution paths. Cato Networks controls prompts, responses, tool calls and tool actions before agents create business impact. Cato Networks says AI security can be deployed independently to protect AI usage and AI agents across the organization. Organizations can run AI Security for Applications on-prem or in their own cloud with AI Security Outposts.[9][10]

Other modules run on the same platform. Cato DLP offers a catalog of 350+ pre-defined data types covering common use cases for sensitive data, PII, and compliance. The Cato DLP engine inspects all traffic to private applications and SaaS apps. Cato EPP is fully managed through the Cato Management Application. Cato DNS Security inspects all DNS traffic in real time to prevent malicious activity hiding within the protocol, and it blocks DNS requests to malicious destinations before a connection is ever made. The Cato Management Application unifies configuration, monitoring and analytics in a single pane of glass.[12][13][14]

Cato Networks offers MDR, which delivers zero-footprint detection of persistent threats with no agents or appliances. Cato Networks monitors last-mile ISPs 24×7 at every site. On an outage or performance degradation, Cato Networks works with the ISP to resolve it. For management, customers can choose Cato or a qualified partner to help manage the networking and security environment. For site deployment, the zero-touch Cato Socket deploys quickly at customer premises, by the customer or with Cato and partner remote or on-site support. Customers can self-manage, co-manage with a partner and Cato, or hand over complete hands-free operations.[15]

On deployment, Cato Networks says zero-touch provisioning and self-service client rollout enable selective deployment by use case, geography, or org unit. Cato Networks says its modular platform coexists with existing infrastructure, allowing gradual adoption. Cato Networks says organizations can start with a specific capability such as SD-WAN, SSE, or ZTNA and expand over time without rearchitecting the environment.[6][12][13][14][15]

Cato Networks on the record

Sources

Cato Networks full record

  1. [1]catonetworks.comCato Networks · catonetworks.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Cato raises 359 millionCato Networks · catonetworks.com · published June 30, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cato continues expansion with new global headquartersCato Networks · catonetworks.com · published June 2, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cato SASE Cloud Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  5. [5]Cato Networks: World’s Leading Single-Vendor SASE PlatformCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Platform Architecture | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]SASE Platform | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Agentic AI Security | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]AI Security | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Data Loss Prevention (DLP) | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Endpoint Protection (EPP) | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]DNS Security | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Cato Management Application (CMA) | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Cato Managed Services | Cato NetworksCato Networks · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Cato Networks Launches Cato AI Endpoint to Secure AI Use Beyond the BrowserCato Networks · published October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Cato Networks Launches Agentic Threat Prevention to Predict and Mitigate AI-Assisted AttacksCato Networks · published August 3, 2026 · Tier A

Lakera full record

  1. [1]Lakera: The AI-Native Security Platform to Accelerate GenAILakera · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Check point acquires lakera to deliver end to end ai security for enterprisesCheck Point Software Technologies · checkpoint.com · published September 16, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Check point software reports fourth quarter and 2025 full year resultsCheck Point Software Technologies · checkpoint.com · published February 12, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Agent Security Overview | Check Point AI SecurityLakera documentation · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Workforce AI Security | Lakera, a Check Point CompanyLakera · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Red Teaming Services: Expert-led adversarial testingLakera · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Guardrails Dashboard | Check Point AI SecurityLakera documentation · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Secure AI Agents from Discovery to RuntimeLakera · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Lakera Launches Open-Source Security Benchmark for LLM Backends in AI AgentsBusiness Wire · published October 28, 2025 · Tier A
  10. [10]Product Peek: Introducing Lakera’s Advanced Content ModerationLakera · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Q4 2025 AI Agent Security TrendsLakera · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]AI Security for Product Teams HandbookLakera · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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