Fortinet Acquires Virtue AI: Boosting AI Security Defenses

Fortinet has acquired Virtue AI, an AI security specialist. This acquisition adds AI runtime protection and automated validation capabilities to Fortinet's existing security portfolio. Virtue AI, founded in 2024, offers security for autonomous AI systems. This includes automated red-teaming of AI agents and real-time security guardrails across various media like text, images, and AI-generated code. Virtue AI's Guardian Agent technology provides visibility into AI agents and scans for hidden security risks. Its automated validation identifies new risks across model updates and policy fine-tuning, testing hundreds of attack vectors. Fortinet says this deal strengthens its ability to protect AI models and applications across the entire AI lifecycle. This matters because organizations are deploying more AI applications, expanding the attack surface for potential threats.