Security firm Trend Micro has announced an agreement to acquire Provilla, a provider of fingerprint-based platforms to protect against data leaks in organisations.

Under the agreement, Provilla will operate as a subsidiary of Trend Micro's US affiliate.

Provilla warned that organisations of all sizes are vulnerable to data leaks that pose security, intellectual property, monetary, privacy and compliance threats.

Mobile workers equipped with unsecured and unprotected computers may inadvertently or intentionally expose confidential company information via wireless networks.

Also, with an ever increasing array of USB-based devices, all corporate desktops are now at risk.

Provilla claims to intelligently control leaks at multiple endpoints, while letting organisations know the exact location of sensitive data for active and effective control.

"Trend Micro is focused on providing customers with the most useful, intelligent, centrally controlled content security solutions to address the latest threats entering or leaving organisations including intentional or inadvertent data leaks," said Eva Chen, chief executive and co-founder of Trend Micro.

"Solving this growing problem will require broader and deeper insight into the multiple endpoint data leak vulnerabilities and the use of intelligent solutions that can identify sensitive data and prevent its misuse through endpoint devices and channels.

"The acquisition of Provilla strengthens our ability to execute on our content security strategy with technology and products complementing our own."

Trend Micro will continue to offer Provilla's standalone products in the near term and will gradually integrate Provilla's capabilities into its own enterprise, small and medium business solutions.