Watchful Software, a leading provider of data-centric information security solutions, announced today that it has secured its initial round of funding from Critical Ventures. The initial investment was made out of the Critical Ventures I Fund, in conjunction with funding from Critical SGPS, S.A. This round is earmarked to bring to market the information security technologies which have been under development for two years. Watchful Software is a spin-off from Critical Software, S.A., an international software services firm.

The company's key technologies include RightsWATCH, a data-centric information security solution, and TypeWATCH, an advanced persistent eBiometric software solution. Each were the result of work done on government and enterprise contracts to address specific security concerns, and have been enhanced as security platforms for global enterprises across information-heavy industries such as the government, defense, finance, energy, and telecommunications sectors. The company has established customers in these sectors who are using the technologies in production currently.

"For decades, the industry has been working to 'secure the network perimeter' by investing in firewalls, anti-spam, etc.; however, situations such as WikiLeaks and the infamous Yahoo and LinkedIn breaches have shown that this is not enough," stated Charles Foley, Chairman of Watchful Software. "Today's security experts now realize that what is really needed is to secure the information itself, wherever it goes, so that only those with the right credentials can view and use sensitive data -- this is what we deliver to our customers."

The RightsWATCH and TypeWATCH technologies had been incubating for the prior two years in Critical SGPS until they reached market-ready status. According to Gonçalo Quadros, Critical SGPS Chairman, "We felt that the technologies matured at the time that market was demanding solutions such as this, and it was time to allow these technologies to walk their own path. Hence, we created a separate entity with venture funding to accelerate Watchful's expansion into international markets and to grow the offerings for existing customers."

"Data leakage remains a real and growing problem with virtually every enterprise, as each month, news about yet another corporate information leak goes public. Whether they are intentional or accidental, all can have a severe negative effect," stated Michael Cucchi, Vice President for TRAC Research, a leading technology analyst firm. "Especially in light of today's dynamic and fluid application environments and the explosion of BYOD devices, simply fencing off the network or doing point-in-time identity management isn't always enough, and we're encouraged that more attention is being given to advanced persistent security technologies that lock down the information objects themselves but most importantly constantly monitor identity in real-time."

About Watchful Software
Watchful Software was formed in 2012 to address the requirement to protect an organization's most critical asset after its people -- its information. The company is staffed by industry executives with decades of systems, software, networking, security, and compliance experience to address the growing need for protecting sensitive and proprietary information against accidental or malicious theft, leakage, or loss. Leveraging key technologies including advanced encryption algorithms, digital rights management, and eBiometrics, Watchful Software has developed a suite of solutions that ensure only authorized personnel have access to enterprise systems or can handle sensitive information, thereby protecting against the massive economic and competitive damage often done by cyberterrorists and information thieves.