CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Impart Security vs KnowBe4

Impart Security sells programmable, deterministic Layer 7 protection across AI, applications and APIs. KnowBe4 sells attack simulation and training, email and collaboration security, and agent security through the KnowBe4 Platform. CISO Tribune files both under AI model and agent 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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  • Impart Security
  • KnowBe4
Impart Security vs KnowBe4: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Impart SecurityImpart Security sells programmable, deterministic Layer 7 protection across AI, applications and APIs.impart.aiKnowBe4KnowBe4 sells attack simulation and training, email and collaboration security, and agent security through the KnowBe4 Platform.knowbe4.com
What it sells
  • Agent Protection[3][10]Enforces application-specific policies on agent traffic and tool interactions.
  • API Security[5][8][10]Enforces controls based on how APIs behave across requests and sessions.
  • Runtime Defense Harness[10]Uses AI-assisted investigation to develop targeted virtual patches.
  • Security Awareness Training[4][5][7]Education on recognizing threats, reinforced with phishing and vishing simulations.
  • Cloud Email Security[10]A suite of AI-driven products for inbound and outbound email.
  • Defend[1][4][5][6][10][11]Inbound email protection against phishing, ransomware and business email compromise.
  • Prevent[5][10][12]Outbound email protection and data loss prevention.
  • Compliance Plus[13]Compliance training platform.
  • Student Edition[5]Security awareness training for academic institutions.
  • BreachSim[14]A free tool to identify network vulnerabilities.
  • Weak Password Test[15]A free tool that finds users with weak passwords.
Categories
Headquarters
San Francisco, United StatesClearwater, United States
Founded
Not stated on its pages2010[1]
Ownership and funding
Privately heldOwned by Vista Equity Partners since 2023[2][4][8][9]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • May 5, 2026KnowBe4 launched a two-tier Security Awareness Training offering and a new AI defense agent for custom content creation.[7]
  • April 6, 2026Dashlane announced an integration with KnowBe4 that links credential risk detection to security training for at-risk users.[18]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[8]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen November 4, 2026[9]
Who it fits
Impart describes protection that runs inside an organisation's existing ingress. The stated coverage spans AI, applications and APIs. Impart also describes integrating its protection into existing ingress and egress infrastructure, with policies and runtime state synchronized across distributed environments.Not written yet
Last verified
September 27, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Impart Security and KnowBe4 are both filed under AI model and agent security.
  • Both are headquartered in the United States.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Impart Security's primary category is AI firewalls and guardrails; KnowBe4's is Security awareness training.
  • Impart Security is also filed under Bot and abuse management. KnowBe4 is also filed under Human risk management and Email security.
  • Impart Security lists Agent Protection, API Security and Runtime Defense Harness. KnowBe4 lists Security Awareness Training, Cloud Email Security, Defend, Prevent, Compliance Plus and 3 more.
  • Impart Security is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. KnowBe4 is headquartered in Clearwater, United States.
  • KnowBe4 was founded in 2010.
  • Impart Security is privately held. KnowBe4 is owned by Vista Equity Partners, since 2023.

What it sells: Impart Security

What Agent Protection does[3][10]
Agent Protection enforces application-specific policies on agent traffic and tool interactions, using runtime context to restrict unauthorized actions and access. Agent Protection runs on the same ingress-layer enforcement engine that inspects the full attack surface.
What API Security does[5][8][10]
API Security enforces controls based on how APIs behave across requests and sessions, not just individual request signatures. Impart applies inline, sequence-aware enforcement to every API call. API Security detects and blocks shadow APIs as they are accessed. API Security prevents sensitive data (PII) from leaving the system.
What Runtime Defense Harness does[10]
Runtime Defense Harness uses AI-assisted investigation to develop targeted virtual patches and deploy protection through the same engine already protecting the applications. Targeted virtual patches are generated and tested against runtime traffic, with Policy as Code validated before deployment. AI-generated virtual patches are informed by runtime behavior, tested against live traffic and enforced through programmable Layer 7 controls.

What it sells: KnowBe4

What Security Awareness Training does[4][5][7]
KnowBe4 says it delivers timely, personalized education that helps people recognize threats. Lessons are reinforced with realistic phishing and vishing simulations.
What Cloud Email Security does[10]
KnowBe4 Cloud Email Security is a suite of AI-driven products designed to detect and prevent advanced email threats across inbound and outbound communication. Contextual banners and prompts are delivered at the point of risk.
What Defend does[1][4][5][6][10][11]
Defend detects and blocks phishing, ransomware and business email compromise with behavioral AI and self-learning threat models. Defend inserts color-coded banners on flagged email and rewrites links, checking them at time of click. Defend integrates with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 through API-based connectivity.
What Prevent does[5][10][12]
Prevent monitors outbound email in real time and alerts users to risky behavior, such as accidental sends or misdirected emails. Prevent is integrated with Microsoft Outlook and Office 365. Prevent Enterprise adds misdirected content detection and custom DLP policies.
What Compliance Plus does[13]
Compliance Plus has a training library of 1000+ items of compliance training content. Compliance Plus offers targeted training for requirements such as HIPAA, PCI and GDPR. Organizations can upload SCORM-compliant content to the KnowBe4 LMS.
What Student Edition does[5]
The KnowBe4 Student Edition enables academic institutions to prepare students to identify and prevent modern cyberattacks. Its training content covers phishing, BYOD risks, password hygiene, social media risks and campus scams.
What BreachSim does[14]
BreachSim is a free tool from KnowBe4 to identify network vulnerabilities. BreachSim tests over 12 realistic data exfiltration scenarios following the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
What Weak Password Test does[15]
The Weak Password Test is a free tool to help IT Administrators know which users have passwords that are easily guessed. It checks the Active Directory and generates a report of users with weak passwords.

Questions about Impart Security and KnowBe4

What do Impart Security and KnowBe4 sell?
Impart Security sells Agent Protection, API Security and Runtime Defense Harness. KnowBe4 sells Security Awareness Training, Cloud Email Security, Defend, Prevent, Compliance Plus and 3 more.
Are Impart Security and KnowBe4 in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Impart Security's primary category is AI firewalls and guardrails and KnowBe4's is Security awareness training.
Where are Impart Security and KnowBe4 headquartered?
Impart Security is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. KnowBe4 is headquartered in Clearwater, United States.
When were Impart Security and KnowBe4 founded?
KnowBe4 was founded in 2010.
Who owns Impart Security and KnowBe4?
Impart Security is privately held. KnowBe4 is owned by Vista Equity Partners, since 2023.
Who are Impart Security and KnowBe4 sold to?
Impart describes protection that runs inside an organisation's existing ingress.
What have Impart Security and KnowBe4 announced recently?
May 5, 2026: KnowBe4 launched a two-tier Security Awareness Training offering and a new AI defense agent for custom content creation.

About Impart Security

Impart Security sells programmable, deterministic Layer 7 protection across AI, applications and APIs. Impart enforces security policies directly in the application traffic path. Impart describes one programmable engine that unifies OWASP coverage, stateful behavioral analysis and custom security logic to block threats inline. Impart defines runtime enforcement as the ability to detect and block a threat at the moment the request is made, inline in the path of live traffic. Impart integrates programmable Layer 7 protection into existing ingress and egress infrastructure, enforces deterministic controls locally, and synchronizes policies and runtime state across distributed environments.[4][6][9][10]

For bots, Impart blocks credential stuffing, scraping and AI-driven automation with stateful controls that evaluate request patterns and session behavior. For agents, Impart enforces application-specific policies on agent traffic and tool interactions, using runtime context to restrict unauthorized actions and access. Impart detects and blocks shadow APIs as they are accessed. Impart's API enforcement prevents sensitive data (PII) from leaving the system.[8][10]

Impart sits between the agent and the customer's systems, enforcing security before any action executes. Agent protection runs on the same ingress-layer enforcement engine that inspects the full attack surface. Impart evaluates each prompt using session history, identity, prior model interactions and the chain of tool calls behind it. Impart's LLM enforcement sits inline between the caller and the model and runs before the prompt reaches inference. Impart builds a live catalog of every MCP server reaching the environment, sanctioned or not, and every tool exposed by each one. Policy-as-code in Impart applies the same way to AI clients, CLI users, web apps and direct API callers.[3][5][6][8]

Runtime Defense Harness uses AI-assisted investigation to develop targeted virtual patches and deploy protection through the same engine already protecting the applications. Impart generates and tests targeted virtual patches against runtime traffic, validating Policy as Code before deployment. Impart deploys custom virtual patches in under 60 minutes. Impart executes custom security logic inline using request context and shared session state, and blocks attacks without model inference in the traffic path.[4][10]

Impart runs inside the existing ingress, without adding an extra traffic hop or single point of failure. A lightweight module runs inside the existing ingress controller, capturing HTTP requests after TLS termination and passing them to a local inspector. If the inspector fails or times out, the module fails open. The Impart inspector runs locally alongside the ingress to evaluate request context, runtime state and custom security logic. Enforcement decisions in Impart are deterministic, and no AI inference or cloud round trip is required. Impart Cloud keeps policies and shared state in sync. Impart extends programmable Layer 7 protection to outbound AI requests and agent interactions through supported AI gateway infrastructure. Impart inspects traffic, applies custom security logic and protects sensitive data without replacing the existing gateway, routing or cost controls. The Impart Security plugin runs natively inside Kong Gateway, paired with an Impart Inspector running in the customer's own environment.[5][9][10]

Impart inspects every request to AI applications, web applications and APIs in the traffic path where it sits. The Impart integration with Wiz sends hosts to a Wiz tenant as Imported Assets, next to the cloud resources. Impart sends hostnames to Wiz and does not read Wiz issues, findings or resources. FanDuel replaced black-box security with Impart. Impart offered Crossbeam a single solution for web application, API security and LLM protection.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Impart Security on the record

Sources

Impart Security full record

  1. [1]impart.aiImpart Security · impart.ai · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]impart.aiImpart Security · impart.ai · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Agent Protection - Control AI Agent Behavior | ImpartImpart Security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Runtime Defense | Impart Security PlatformImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]LLM Protection | Deterministic Agent Controls | ImpartImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]MCP Protection | Runtime Control for MCP Layer | ImpartImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]WAF for the Agentic Era | Impart SecurityImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]API Security for the Agentic Era | Impart SecurityImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Integrations with Impart Security | Impart Security Runtime ProtectionImpart Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Programmable Layer 7 Firewall | Impart SecurityImpart Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

KnowBe4 full record

  1. [1]About usKnowBe4 · knowbe4.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Vista equity partners completes acquisition of knowbe4KnowBe4 · knowbe4.com · published February 1, 2023 · Tier A
  3. [3]Contact usKnowBe4 · knowbe4.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]KnowBe4 | Secure Your Digital Workforce: Human + AIKnowBe4 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]KnowBe4 Student Edition | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Warning: Attackers Are Using Calendar Invite Files to Evade Security FiltersKnowBe4 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]KnowBe4 Launches AI-Native Attack Simulation & Training Product and Twelfth AI AgentBusiness Wire · published May 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Reviews 2026 - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier C
  9. [9]KnowBe4 Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]Cloud Email Security for Microsoft 365 | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Pricing | DefendKnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Pricing | Prevent | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Compliance Plus: Compliance Training Platform | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]BreachSim | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Weak Password Test | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Security Culture Report Analysis Center | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]KnowBe4 Customer Success | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Dashlane Launches First-of-its-Kind Integration with KnowBe4 to Transform Security Awareness into Proactive DefensePR Newswire · published April 6, 2026 · Tier A

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