Darktrace empowers the defenders who do the important work of keeping the world moving, and in the Era of AI, that work is more important than ever. As businesses adapt to change, implementing AI and automation, they’re also facing a rise in new cyber threats, fueled by AI. Cybercrime as a service, insider attacks, unknown and novel threats, AI deepfakes, and more are all on the rise, making it difficult to defend what matters most. Now that hackers have AI at their disposal, organizations need a new way to defend with more intelligent AI that can stay ahead of the changing threat landscape. Founded in 2013 in Cambridge, UK, Darktrace built a new way to stop threats using self-learning AI that understands your data across the business, learning what’s normal so it can stop what’s not.
Darktrace was navigating its own change. The company was evolving from a suite of point products to a powerful platform. They also needed to bring clarity to their story and consistency to their identity, and they needed a powerful platform to ignite their growth. We gave them a big mission to rally behind: “Darktrace is the essential cybersecurity platform for the Era of AI.” In a world where defenders need new ways to secure against AI cyber threats, Darktrace is the essential technology to stop a new wave of threats. We evolved and elevated their brand identity, anchored in an ownable new primary orange, new typography, and a branded element called The Trace a—responsive line of motion that adapts across formats and stories, much like Darktrace’s AI adapts across networks, data, and environments. It’s not just a logo or a flourish. It’s a living expression of the technology itself—always learning, always moving. The new identity, including new tone and voice and messaging framework can scale consistently as Darktrace grows and flex to every area of the brand experience.
We also brought clarity to the Darktrace product ecosystem, defining a cohesive architecture and naming system that now lives under the ActiveAI Security Platform. The name isn’t a marketing veneer—it’s a direct, strategic signal: this is real AI, built to proactively defend, not passively monitor.
The impact was immediate. In less than three months, the launch campaign generated over 25 million impressions. Employees embraced the new brand in force—more than one-third shared it publicly in the first weeks. And shortly after the rebrand, Darktrace was acquired by Thoma Bravo, a milestone that affirmed both the strength of the company and the clarity of its new story.
This wasn’t just a visual upgrade. It was a transformation—of how Darktrace shows up, how it speaks, and how it inspires the people doing one of the most critical jobs in the world: defending the future.
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Meet the new Darktrace. We collaborated with the team at Darktrace for nearly a year, defining a new mission, position, identity, and a powerful new platform, Defend Beyond. We also worked closely with the Darktrace leadership team to bring clarity to the brand architecture and product identity, including naming the Darktrace Platform, the ActiveAI Security Platform.
Ready for some real talk?
It’s time for a new narrative in cybersecurity. One that goes beyond stopping threats. One that sets the record straight on AI. One that says goodbye to the fear, uncertainty and doubt, because when was the last time you went through a cyberpunk saloon and escaped a bar fight with AI bad guys on your way to the office? Never.
Darktrace empowers the defenders who do the important work of keeping the world moving, and in the Era of AI, that work is more important than ever. In a category obsessed with space, the wild west, and celebrity, we built a campaign around bringing cybersecurity into the real world, celebrating the role defenders play in our lives and elevating how Darktrace makes the job of defending easier with smarter, self-learning AI. Over the next several months you’ll start seeing the campaign unfold and we couldn’t be more proud of this collaborative effort with one of the most innovative technology companies in the world.
Ready for the Era of AI Cybersecurity?
Meet the new Darktrace brand. We’ve been collaborating with the team at Darktrace for nearly a year, defining a new position, identity, and powerful new platform, Defend Beyond.
This team is special and they believe deeply in the power of cybersecurity to unlock innovation. The crazy reality we’re all faced with? Cyber attacks are going to dramatically increase and become much more sophisticated with AI tools available to hackers. In order to keep the world moving forward, defenders in every company in the world need intelligent AI to stay ahead of the curve. Not just a GPT or LLM bolted onto legacy cyber, but a completely new, AI-native approach to securing organizations. Darktrace has AI in its DNA, from its founding at Cambridge to today.
We’ve repositioned the brand, built a powerful new identity and brand platform, Defend Beyond, and developed a new product identity for their ActiveAI Security Platform and AI-powered products.
https://darktrace.com/blog/introducing-defend-beyond
Darktrace ActiveAI Security Platform
In light of the evolving cybersecurity landscape, characterized by increasing frequency, sophistication, and scale of attacks driven by the proliferation of AI, Darktrace has introduced its Darktrace ActiveAI Security Platform. This AI-native solution provides comprehensive visualization and correlation of threats across an enterprise, enhancing visibility, mitigating risks, and automating time-consuming tasks.
This new platform-based approach positions Darktrace as a leader in AI cybersecurity, enabling organizations to consolidate their security stack and streamline operations, reducing operational costs. The new platform name reflects Darktrace’s commitment to offering proactive, preventative protection against future cyber threats, aligning with its mission to become the essential cybersecurity provider. Furthermore, we sought to establish a strong connection between its brand and product through a unified design language and narrative, utilizing brand colors, storytelling, and a bespoke logo. This cohesive approach aims to create a distinct platform identity that resonates with customers and reinforces Darktrace’s position as a trusted cybersecurity partner.
Naming Strategy and Brand Architecture
To complement their new platform, Darktrace required a naming strategy and brand architecture to organize their products, services, and capabilities. Our strategy, developed after comprehensive analysis, focused on streamlining and simplifying the product packaging.
Key changes include:
Convergence of Darktrace DETECT™, Darktrace RESPOND™, and Cyber AI Analyst™ into the Darktrace ActiveAI Security platform. This approach ensures that customers easily benefit from our real-time detection, autonomous response, and investigative AI capabilities.
Renaming primary products to better align with customer challenges: Darktrace / CLOUD, Darktrace / EMAIL, Darktrace / NETWORK, Darktrace / OT, Darktrace / IDENTITY, and Darktrace / ENDPOINT.
Renaming cross-platform products to better reflect their functionality: Proactive Exposure Management, Attack Surface Management, and Incident Readiness & Recovery.
Learn More: https://darktrace.com/platform
