Security start-ups expand product lines, add funding and head count
A look back at Network World’s top-10 security companies to watch from 2006.
Here’s a roundup of what last year’s winners are up to:
2007 top-10 security companies to watch
At Exploit Prevention Labs, which last year came out with desktop software product that intercepts and blocks exploit code, executives have learned what’s in a name.
“At first we called the product SocketShield, but we changed the name last November to LinkScanner, because we’re mainly geeks, and we found out that no one knew what a socket is,” says Chris Weltzien, president and COO.
The company is getting some traction with LinkScanner, available in a free version that has seen hundreds of thousands of downloads, and a paid version, which has sold to a few thousand. The enterprise market remains elusive, but the consumer market is starting to pan out in partnerships with Avanquest and IS3 for distribution and software-integration projects. Exploit Prevention Labs, which puts an emphasis on threat research, has also added four researchers.
Network Streaming also thought hard about its name, and changed it to Bomgar, after its founder Joel Bomgar. The company’s Bomgar Box, a remote-control appliance designed to enable help-desk sessions and collaboration, has been released in a SoHo version, had its security upgraded with multifactor authentication and includes a tool called Jumpoint to allow remote access to unattended PCs without requiring client software, officials say.
In February Bomgar closed a $5 million round of funding, bringing its total to $12 million.
Void Communications’ CEO Joseph Collins says the company has been so busy focusing on building a corporate customer base for its disappearing e-mails that it hasn’t updated its Web site since the company’s initial product launch last year.
Void’s VaporStream is a Web-based e-mail service that lets two parties communicate with their regular e-mail addresses via messages that are sent as encrypted images. Web browsers are instructed not to cache VaporStream messages, so they leave no trace. The company claims a user base of 10,000 worldwide, and is working on Version 2.0, which is designed for corporate use. The first customer for this release is a Fortune 500 company that plans to roll it out in December, according to Collins, and the upgrade includes an enterprise server for secure integration, as well as Lotus Notes and Outlook plug-ins.
This past year the company also received its second undisclosed amount of funding to bring the total up to . . . well, who knows?
Two of our 2006 picks — Cryptolex Trust Systems and Cogneto — are working to integrate their products.
“We’re working with Cogneto to have our Mobio device work with their I-names technology,” says Cryptolex CEO Clovis Najm. He adds that the Mobio handheld device, which supports multiple authentication methods, has been selected by Cisco’s WebEx division for use internally and as an option for customers.
Cogneto late last year came out with its Unomi software, which uses so-called “cognitive authentication” processes for identifying users online through a combination of behavioral biometrics and cognitive psychology. The company is riding high on the cool factor — Gartner named them a “Cool Vendor in Secure Business Enablement” in a report published last March.
But being cool doesn’t necessarily mean a product sells.
“We went to sell to the banking industry, but we were disappointed,” acknowledges Patrick Audley, CTO at Cogneto. The company is now pursuing a consumer-brand identity for its product, and is starting to make some progress, with three resellers expected to be announced shortly.
Many of Network World’s other 2006 start-ups say they’re in growth mode.
Ken Steinberg, CEO and co-founder of Savant Protection, which sells server and desktop software featuring a cryptographic-based snapshot of applications so that unauthorized changes can’t be made, says the firm is adding employees.
“We expect to add 20 or 30 people later this year,” says Steinberg, whose software has been deployed at Connecticut River bank and other companies.
Pittsburgh-based BitArmor Systems is also expanding; the company has added 10 employees for a total of 30 and also picked up a president, Michael Concordia. Just last month BitArmor Systems announced an upgrade to its DataControl software that attaches directly to sensitive information “smart tags,” which travel with the data so that policies for security, auditing, retention and expiration follow it wherever it moves or resides, the company says.
E-mail security vendor Declude also added some brass, CTO Paul D. Parisi said. In May the company launched a product called Compass, e-mail security software that works with IMail and SmarterMail messaging servers and is designed for smaller companies or as another layer of protection for enterprises. The software performs more than 100 tests to determine if an inbound e-mail is spam, featuring the company’s Security Flaw Scanning technology that spots malformed e-mails in which viruses can easily hide.
KoolSpan of Bethesda, Md., announced it appointed Emil Sturniolo as its chief scientist. In March the company released an upgrade to its SecurEdge VPN client on a USB token. Version 4.0 includes a redesigned .NET management application for easier administration; the ability to attach to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) source for client key assignments; and easier assignment of users from the LDAP server to a client key, officials say.
Meanwhile, Yoggie Security Systems has doubled its head count to 40, according to Schlomo Touboul, founder and CEO.
The company’s first product, Yoggie Gatekeeper that manages laptop security, has been augmented by a new USB storage device with built-in security functions, called the Yoggie Pico. Touboul says Yoggie has signed up distributors in the United States, France and the U.K., and tens of thousands of its products have been sold.
“It’s gone better than expected,” says Touboul, adding that the Yoggie products seem to be finding most traction in the home and small-business market.
