Excavate vs
Proofpoint ITM.
Proofpoint Insider Threat Management watches activity from the endpoint to email and cloud, and stops data at the device, normally run by your team. Excavate reads the systems you already run and does the investigating.
Last checked 14 October 2026 · Sources below
Proofpoint Insider Threat Management, formerly ObserveIT, is software normally run by your own team. Built around an endpoint agent, with signals from email, cloud and chat, it records user activity and can block data leaving the device. Excavate’s coverage installs nothing: our AI agent and examiners do the investigating, every departure gets an exit review, and every case ends in a conclusion signed by the examiner.
Where Excavate
is stronger.
What Excavate does for you that Proofpoint normally leaves to your team.
Our AI agent and examiners work every trigger. With Proofpoint, your team triages the alerts and runs the response. Its Applied Services can do triage and analysis under a separate contract, while you normally keep incident response.12
Excavate reads the systems you already run through read-only APIs. Proofpoint runs an agent on your devices.3
An exit review for every departure, and each one asks IT to hold the laptop until it closes. Proofpoint describes time-limited enhanced monitoring for leavers.4
Every case ends in a written conclusion signed by the examiner, with the evidence and its chain of custody. Proofpoint gives your team alerts and exportable evidence for HR, legal and compliance, and your own team decides.51
The record is backfilled from each source when you connect, and nothing expires until you delete it.
Our AI agent works every trigger with our examiners today. Proofpoint has announced an Investigation Agent, expected by the end of 2026.6
Side by side.
| Excavate | Proofpoint ITM | |
|---|---|---|
| Who investigates | Our AI agent and examiners. Only an examiner escalates or concludes against a person. | Your security team. Applied Services can do triage and analysis under contract.12 |
| What you hold at the end | A written conclusion, signed by the examiner. | Alerts and exportable evidence. Your own team decides.51 |
| Departing employees | An exit review for every departure, opened from your HR system during offboarding. | Proofpoint describes time-limited enhanced monitoring for leavers “from notice through departure”.4 |
| Message content | Opened by a person only for a stated purpose. Every opening is logged. | AI sentiment analysis of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace messages. Analysts open full conversations “only when necessary”.7 |
| What you buy | A service. We keep the record and investigate. | Software normally run by your team, part of a data security platform.85 |
| Sees activity on the device | Only when a laptop is collected on a case. | Yes, through its agent on Windows, macOS and Linux. Your agent policy sets what it records.39 |
| When data leaves | We warn you through detections and investigate what happened. | It can block or ask for a reason, across about ten channels.1011 |
How Proofpoint works.
From Proofpoint’s own public documentation, as of 14 October 2026.
One agent serves Proofpoint’s endpoint DLP and ITM. It records activity on Windows, macOS and Linux: file activity such as USB copies, web uploads and printing, plus application use and web browsing.31
Proofpoint describes ITM as detecting risky behavior “across endpoint, chat, AI, email, cloud, and web”.8
It can block data leaving the device, or ask the user for a reason first, across about ten channels, including prompts to AI tools, where it can also redact text.1011
Communications Insights analyzes Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace communications for sentiment such as “resentment, disgruntlement, or coercion”. Analysts see full conversations “only when necessary”, and communications are kept for 90 days.7
Your own team: Proofpoint describes ITM as letting you “set up policies, triage alerts, hunt for threats and respond to incidents”. Applied Services can operate it while you keep “incident response workflows” unless your services contract says otherwise, and Proofpoint notes they are “not a replacement for dedicated managed detection and response (MDR)”.12
Running both.
Keep Proofpoint for what it does on the device. Excavate reads the systems you already run through read-only APIs, reviews every departure in writing, and does the investigating.
Questions buyers ask.
We run Proofpoint ITM. Why add Excavate?+
Proofpoint gives your team visibility and control on the device. Excavate does the investigating: our AI agent and examiners work every trigger, every departure gets an exit review, and every case ends in a conclusion signed by the examiner.
Does Excavate replace Proofpoint’s blocking?+
No, it works next to it. Proofpoint stops transfers at the device. Excavate warns you through detections and investigates what the person did, and why.
What about our works council?+
Plan for it to review either one: both read employee activity. We support your assessment and DPIA. Excavate reads activity in company systems, and a laptop only when IT collects it on a case.
What does our team still do?+
Grant read-only access, ask IT to hold a leaver’s laptop, run our collection tool when a case needs it, and decide what to do with each conclusion.
- Proofpoint: ITM solution brief (September 2025)
- Proofpoint: Applied Services
- Proofpoint docs: Supported platforms
- Proofpoint blog, 15 September 2026
- Proofpoint: Data Security and Governance
- Proofpoint press release, 22 September 2026
- Proofpoint: Communications Insights datasheet (Mar 2026)
- Proofpoint: Insider Threat Management
- Proofpoint docs: Agent policies
- Proofpoint docs: Prevention rules, supported actions
- Proofpoint docs: Exit and entry points
- Proofpoint docs: Agent realms
- Proofpoint blog, 24 September 2026
Proofpoint and ObserveIT are trademarks of Proofpoint, Inc. Excavate is not affiliated with or endorsed by any company named on this page. If something here is out of date, write to info@excavate.ai and we will correct it.
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