New Delhi, August 19(APAC Media): Fortinet has acquired AI security company Virtue AI as enterprises move more AI systems into production.
The deal expands Fortinet’s focus on securing AI models, applications and autonomous AI agents. Virtue AI works on AI runtime protection, automated testing and security controls for agentic AI systems. The financial terms were not disclosed, although Fortinet said the transaction is immaterial to its business.
AI Security Becomes The Focus
The acquisition comes as companies deploy AI agents that can interact with applications, tools and data with limited human intervention. This creates new security risks beyond traditional networks and endpoints.
Virtue AI’s platform is designed to test AI agents for vulnerabilities, monitor their behaviour and apply controls to potentially risky actions. Its capabilities include automated red-teaming, AI agent visibility, MCP tool scanning and real-time guardrails.
Fortinet Adds To Its AI Security Stack
Fortinet already offers FortiAIGate, which is designed to monitor AI traffic and protect large language models against risks such as prompt injection, data leakage, model poisoning and jailbreak attempts.
The Virtue AI acquisition adds another layer focused on testing and protecting AI systems during development and runtime. Fortinet has also been expanding its AI security capabilities through its work with NVIDIA, including protection for AI workloads and autonomous agents.
The move reflects a wider shift in cybersecurity as companies move from experimenting with generative AI to deploying AI agents in business operations. For Fortinet, securing these systems is becoming an increasingly important part of its broader cybersecurity portfolio.
