AccessData

In 1987, long before 'cybersecurity' was a common term, Eric Thompson founded AccessData. The company's focus was on a new and emerging field: digital forensics. Their core idea was to build tools that could analyze digital information for evidence. This led to the creation of their flagship product, the Forensic Toolkit, or FTK. FTK became a foundational piece of software for law enforcement and government agencies, allowing them to do things like recover deleted emails or scan hard drives for key information. The company established itself as a key player, providing the tools needed for digital investigations and e-discovery. Their products were essential for legal and corporate clients who needed to search, preserve, and analyze data in a defensible manner. In 2013, AccessData secured $20 million in a private equity funding round from Sorenson Capital and another $25 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank to fuel further growth. The market for data analysis and legal tech continued to evolve, and so did AccessData. The final chapter for the independent company came in December 2020, when it was acquired by Exterro, a legal GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) software provider, in a deal valued in the nine figures. The acquisition aimed to combine AccessData's deep forensic capabilities with Exterro's broader legal risk platform, creating a single, integrated solution for everything from data privacy to forensic investigations.