Take one super over-achiever technologist, add a very risky (hence lucrative) product area and a dash of intrigue, and you have the makings for a good product launch.
Nyotron today launched its cybersecurity product in the U.S. Nothing too exciting about that, but the history of the company’s founder might pique your interest.
Nir Gaist is the sort of over-achiever that one either worries hugely about or admires greatly (or probably both in equal measure). Nyotron’s CEO and founder, Gaist started programing at the age of six. (Which leads me to ask, what took him so long?)
In 2008, he and his brother Ofer Gaist, now COO, started Nyotron as a penetration testing company. Before founding the company, and as a departure from his buddies who were probably playing Candy Crush or something, Nir hacked an Israeli service provider, which was so impressed with his skills it ended up hiring him. From there, he went on to test telephone systems, online banking protocols, ATMs and more for the largest banks in Israel.
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When he was 10, Nir began his studies at the Israeli Technion University and wrote a curriculum for the Israeli Ministry of Education on offensive security that he taught in high schools throughout Israel. He has also worked on a number of security projects with Microsoft, winning an organizational best practice award from Bill Gates when he was 12.
It’s safe to say this guy knows his stuff. So, then, what is Nyotron actually doing?
PARANOID threat protection
Nyotron has developed a threat-agnostic defense technology to cope with unknown threats. PARANOID (well, the guy is young, so capitalized and militaristic-sounding named are a must) is designed to prevent targeted and advanced national-level cyber attacks on high-profile enterprises, and it claims to do so without any previous knowledge of the threat or its methodologies.
Based on a last-line-of-defense approach, the company’s technology is designed to protect enterprise data and assets by mitigating threats that were able to outsmart all security layers. Nyotron’s existing customer base includes transportation, government, banking, healthcare and the public sector.
Nyotron has some big players in its sights. The company is going after vendors such as Check Point, Crowdstrike and SentinelOne, for starters, but it is doing so with a different focus. Whereas most vendors evaluate malware based on its data path, Nyotron analyzes the behavior of the malware in a new approach that the company has managed to patent. Nyotron promises to block attacks that have slipped past the traditional firewall and antivirus solutions—kind of a “last line of defense” approach.
And while all the buzzwords and the relative obscurity of the team would potentially have people dubious, this is a real thing. Israeli airline El Al is an initial customer, and the CISO at an (alas) unnamed “major U.S. law enforcement agency” seems to be a fan as well:
“As a major U.S. law enforcement agency, we always have to be vigilant about being targeted by cyber attackers, which could potentially have disastrous consequences for civilians in our jurisdiction. Like an all-seeing, all-knowing, always-vigilant eye, PARANOID has proven itself to be able to detect and block every type of threat that’s been thrown our way. The platform has positively protected us from smart and highly advanced cyber attackers and given us the peace of mind that we need to do our jobs on the ground.”
Of course, knowing who the CISO is and the name of the agency he works for would be better, but assuming this is an accurate customer win and quote, that’s a pretty glowing reference. The company is launching with a suite of different offerings, all aimed at delivering this strong last line of defense:
- PARANOID: Leveraging an agent/server architecture, PARANOID is able to protect enterprises from threats today by understanding what normal computer behavior looks like and what to do when suspicious behavior tries to damage data on an endpoint. This means that regardless of the type of threat or the methodology used to infiltrate the network, PARANOID can stop the attack. Using this threat-agnostic defense approach, only PARANOID can address the unknown threats that other technologies simply can’t stop.
- PARANOID War Room: High-profile enterprises that deal with targeted attacks on an ongoing basis benefit from the real-time visibility that the PARANOID War Room delivers with its 3D representation of the security status of their endpoints. Analysts use this technology for forensics, intelligence and analysis of the attacks that infiltrate their networks.
- Nyotron Managed Defense Services: Recognizing that enterprises are not staffed with enough cybersecurity experts, Nyotron is offering its Managed Defense Services, which operate the endpoint security of organizations via the company’s Global War Room facilities in California and Israel. These services can deliver monitoring, alerting, management, intelligence, research and incident-response services.
This is a big, beefy product launch, and, as mentioned, the fact that it comes from an unknown without a good track record is slightly worrying. That said, if the exploits of Nyotron’s founder are anything to go by, there is some serious industry knowledge here. The company is certainly one to watch going forward.
