CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Darktrace vs Hornetsecurity

Darktrace sells security for AI systems and agents, for network, cloud and OT environments, and for email and collaboration tools. Hornetsecurity sells a suite of services for Microsoft 365 security, risk, governance, compliance and backup. CISO Tribune files both under Email 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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  • Darktrace
  • Hornetsecurity
Darktrace vs Hornetsecurity: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
DarktraceDarktrace sells security for AI systems and agents, for network, cloud and OT environments, and for email and collaboration tools.darktrace.comHornetsecurityHornetsecurity sells a suite of services for Microsoft 365 security, risk, governance, compliance and backup.hornetsecurity.com
What it sells
  • Darktrace / EMAIL[14][15]Email security that catches phishing, business email compromise, executive impersonation and social engineering attacks.
  • 365 Total Protection[3][4][7]A suite for Microsoft 365 security, risk, governance, compliance and backup.
  • 365 Total Backup[3][4][6]Automated Microsoft 365 data backup, recovery and protection.
  • Advanced Threat Protection[3][4][7][14]AI-powered protection of emails and data.
  • DMARC Manager[3][4][15]Safeguards domains against email impersonation, phishing and spoofing with DMARC, DKIM and SPF management.
Categories
Headquarters
Cambridge, United Kingdom[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2013[2]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Owned by Thoma Bravo since 2024[3][12][13][17]Owned by Proofpoint, Inc. since 2025[2]
Named customers
  • Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast[4]
  • HARMAN International[5]
  • City of Las Vegas[6]
  • Centre Parcs[7]
  • Banco Galicia[8]
Not stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 24, 2026Darktrace launched Signal Labs, a research unit that tests how AI models and agents misbehave in sandboxed environments, and published its first findings.[9]
  • September 22, 2026Darktrace made its SECURE AI product generally available, giving enterprises tools to discover AI use, monitor people and agents, and act on policy risks.[10]
  • August 4, 2026Darktrace announced an integration that feeds behavioral risk signals about AI agents from its SECURE AI product into the Microsoft Agent 365 portal.[11]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 3, 2026[13]
  • 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
Not written yetNot written yet
Last verified
October 10, 2026November 4, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Darktrace and Hornetsecurity are both filed under Email security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Darktrace's primary category is Network detection and response; Hornetsecurity's is Email security.
  • Darktrace is also filed under OT and ICS security. Hornetsecurity is also filed under Security awareness training, Email authentication and DMARC and Backup and cyber recovery.
  • Darktrace lists Darktrace / EMAIL. Hornetsecurity lists 365 Total Protection, 365 Total Backup, Advanced Threat Protection and DMARC Manager.
  • Darktrace is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
  • Darktrace was founded in 2013.
  • Darktrace is owned by Thoma Bravo, since 2024. Hornetsecurity is owned by Proofpoint, Inc., since 2025.
  • Darktrace publicly names Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, HARMAN International, City of Las Vegas, Centre Parcs and Banco Galicia.

What it sells: Darktrace

What Darktrace / EMAIL does[14][15]
Darktrace / EMAIL learns from each organization's own activity and users, not a shared cross-customer model. Darktrace says it catches phishing, business email compromise, executive impersonation, and social engineering attacks. Behavioral detection extends across Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Slack. Each employee's risk score adapts their email controls.

What it sells: Hornetsecurity

What 365 Total Protection does[3][4][7]
365 Total Protection plans can be onboarded in Hybrid mode. Hornetsecurity offers one package that combines email security, backup, security awareness, access and permission control and domain fraud protection.
What 365 Total Backup does[3][4][6]
The backup and recovery solution covers mailboxes and In-Place Archive mailboxes, Teams, Planner, OneNote, Entra ID Users and Groups, OneDrive for Business accounts, and SharePoint document libraries. It includes unlimited backup storage and restoration and a 4-eye-approval process.
What Advanced Threat Protection does[3][4][7][14]
Hornetsecurity's Sandbox Engine scans email attachments for potential malware by running the file in a virtual, isolated test environment. Hornetsecurity's QR Code Analyzer detects QR codes embedded directly into an email or an image. Real Time Alerts notify an IT security team about acute attacks on the company in real time.
What DMARC Manager does[3][4][15]
DMARC Manager can capture all reports sent by recipient servers back to the sender and aggregate them into a single report. Hornetsecurity describes real-time data on email messages that fail DMARC checks.

Questions about Darktrace and Hornetsecurity

What do Darktrace and Hornetsecurity sell?
Darktrace sells Darktrace / EMAIL. Hornetsecurity sells 365 Total Protection, 365 Total Backup, Advanced Threat Protection and DMARC Manager.
Are Darktrace and Hornetsecurity in the same category?
They share Email security. Darktrace's primary category is Network detection and response and Hornetsecurity's is Email security.
Where are Darktrace and Hornetsecurity headquartered?
Darktrace is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
When were Darktrace and Hornetsecurity founded?
Darktrace was founded in 2013.
Who owns Darktrace and Hornetsecurity?
Darktrace is owned by Thoma Bravo, since 2024. Hornetsecurity is owned by Proofpoint, Inc., since 2025.
Which customers do Darktrace and Hornetsecurity name?
Darktrace publicly names Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, HARMAN International, City of Las Vegas, Centre Parcs and Banco Galicia.
What have Darktrace and Hornetsecurity announced recently?
September 24, 2026: Darktrace launched Signal Labs, a research unit that tests how AI models and agents misbehave in sandboxed environments, and published its first findings.

About Darktrace

Darktrace sells security for AI systems and agents, for network, cloud and OT environments, and for email and collaboration tools. Darktrace says it understands behavior across people, networks, applications, cloud, and AI. Darktrace says its Adaptive AI learns an organization's own operational patterns, unlike security tools that rely on static rules or training data from other organizations. Darktrace says its AI learns from each organization's own business data to identify anomalous activity for each asset across domains.[1][14]

Darktrace says a dynamic understanding of every email user in an organization allows Darktrace / EMAIL to take a targeted response to threats that others miss. Darktrace learns from each organization's own activity and users, not a shared cross-customer model. Darktrace says its email security catches phishing, business email compromise, executive impersonation, and social engineering attacks. Darktrace says its behavioral detection extends across Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Slack. When credentials are compromised, Darktrace responds autonomously by terminating sessions, forcing re-authentication, and restricting access across email, SaaS, and cloud. Darktrace says each employee's risk score adapts their email controls, so protection strengthens for higher-risk users as training progresses. The Darktrace Email Analysis Agent integrates with Microsoft Defender and Security Copilot to streamline investigation and response for SOC teams.[1][15][16]

Darktrace says one solution detects, investigates, and contains threats across network, cloud, OT, endpoint, and identity, and learns the environment from the ground up. Darktrace / HYBRID NETWORK passively ingests traffic from on-premises and virtual networks, multi-cloud environments, OT, endpoints, and identities. Darktrace analyzes encrypted and decrypted traffic across network, cloud, and OT to surface activity that does not fit the environment. Darktrace then contains that activity with response actions taken natively or through firewalls, EDR, SOAR, and ITSM tools. Darktrace says it can flag account takeover, privilege escalation, and insider misuse when an identity stops matching how that identity normally behaves. When a threat is identified, Darktrace automatically acquires host and workload artifacts across endpoints, cloud, containers, and SaaS environments. Darktrace says its approach detects zero-day threats an average of 8 days before public CVE disclosure.

For cloud, Darktrace says its Adaptive AI continuously monitors activity across cloud assets, workloads, APIs, containers, and identities. Darktrace says Cyber AI Analyst automatically investigates alerts and connects related cloud and infrastructure activity. Darktrace's coverage extends across Compute, Serverless, Containers, IAM, Storage Services, and beyond. Darktrace draws data from lightweight host-based server agents or a combination of traffic mirroring and API logs. Darktrace supports security investigations by combining its detection and response capabilities with Amazon Security Lake.[18][19]

For operational technology, Darktrace maintains a live asset inventory, obtained through passive and active scanning, and immediately reveals CVEs and End-Of-Life status. Darktrace says it identifies and contains threats across converged IT and OT environments with Adaptive AI. Darktrace says Cyber AI Analyst automatically investigates alerts and correlates related activity across OT and IT environments. Darktrace says it automatically maps its models to the MITRE for ICS attacks/techniques, and says it helps organizations meet NIST and other regulations and standards.[20]

Darktrace calls its endpoint functionality Network Endpoint eXtended Telemetry (NEXT), which shows the endpoint process root cause for network threats. Darktrace says Cyber AI Analyst autonomously investigates alerts, gathers evidence, tests hypotheses, and delivers incident context. Darktrace responds autonomously with targeted actions that contain threats and avoid business disruption. Darktrace lets customers set response policies with configurable actions based on device types, user groups, locations, business hours, and operational requirements. Darktrace complements Microsoft Defender for Endpoint by connecting endpoint signals with behavioral understanding across a wider infrastructure.[15][21]

Darktrace says action can be taken independently or via integrations with native security controls, and that alerts are sent wherever the customer wants them. Darktrace extends its autonomous response to Check Point firewalls and to Palo Alto firewalls. Darktrace incidents and model breach alerts can be analyzed in CIM compatible Splunk dashboards. Darktrace enriches its AI decision-making with alerts from the Crowdstrike Falcon platform. Darktrace's Cyber AI Analyst integrates with Microsoft Copilot for Security.[14][15][22][23]

HARMAN International uses Darktrace coverage for email, network, and OT systems. Centre Parcs turned to Darktrace to protect its network, email, and cloud environments with a single AI security platform. Darktrace says organizations across all sizes and industries rely on it to get proactive about cyber security.[14][16][20]

Darktrace on the record

Sources

Darktrace full record

  1. [1]ProductsDarktrace · darktrace.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Darktrace named technology pioneer by world economic forumDarktrace · darktrace.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Darktrace announces formal completion of its acquisition by thoma bravoDarktrace · darktrace.com · published October 1, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]Coca cola beverages northeastDarktrace · darktrace.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Harman internationalDarktrace · darktrace.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]City of las vegasDarktrace · darktrace.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Center parcs darktraceDarktrace · darktrace.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Banco galiciaDarktrace · darktrace.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Darktrace launches signal labs to research emerging risks of enterprise ai agentsDarktrace · darktrace.com · published September 24, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Darktrace extends behavioral security with general availability of darktrace secure aiDarktrace · darktrace.com · published September 22, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Darktrace among first cybersecurity companies selected to integrate risk signals into microsoft agent 365Darktrace · darktrace.com · published August 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Darktrace | The Essential AI Cybersecurity PlatformDarktrace · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Darktrace / HYBRID NETWORK Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier C
  14. [14]AI Cyber Security Solutions | Harden Defenses Inside & OutDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Microsoft Azure Security & Compliance | Security ServicesDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]AI-Based Email Security Software | Email Threat ProtectionDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Network Security Management | AI Network Security ProtectionDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Cloud Security Solutions | AI for Cloud Cyber SecurityDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]AWS Data Loss Prevention, Security Compliance, & ProtectionDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]Operational Technology (OT) Cyber Security SolutionsDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  21. [21]AI Endpoint Security | Cyber Security Endpoint Protection SuiteDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  22. [22]Network Security Integrations | Darktrace/NetworkDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  23. [23]Integrations | Darktrace/EndpointDarktrace · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A

Hornetsecurity full record

  1. [1]hornetsecurity.comHornetsecurity · hornetsecurity.com · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Proofpoint acquisition completed press releaseHornetsecurity · hornetsecurity.com · published December 8, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]hornetsecurity.comHornetsecurity · hornetsecurity.com · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cybersecurity Services for Microsoft 365 | HornetsecurityHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Hornetsecurity – Next-Gen Microsoft 365 SecurityHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Backup Service Renewal | Hornetsecurity (formerly Altaro)Hornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]365 Total Protection | Next-Gen Microsoft 365 Security SuiteHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]365 Permission Manager for Microsoft 365 | HornetsecurityHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Cyber Assistant by Hornetsecurity: Meet AI.MYHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]AI Recipient Validation: Prevent Misdirected Emails | HornetsecurityHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Advanced Threat Protection for Email | AI-powered Threat DefenseHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Spam Filter & Malware Protection | HornetsecurityHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Business Email Continuity Service | HornetsecurityHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Hosted Business Email | Hornet.emailHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]DMARC Manager - Secure Your Domain with HornetsecurityHornetsecurity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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