DATA SECURITY
Veza | July 20, 2022
Veza, the data security platform built on the power of authorization, announces today that the company has entered a partnership with Google Cloud, including product integration that enables Google Cloud customers to harness the capabilities of Veza’s data security platform across their multi-cloud ecosystem.
Veza, which recently launched in April 2022 after two years of building in stealth, makes it easy to understand, manage, and control who can and should take what action on what data. With this new integration, Google Cloud customers can now directly access the capabilities of Veza’s authorization-based data security platform integrated with Google Cloud Policy Analyzer to identify, manage, and control external identities and service accounts to Google Cloud services (Looker, BigQuery, and more). This partnership furthers the relationship between Google and Veza, which began in 2021 when GV led the Series B investment in Veza and GV Partner Karim Faris joined Veza Board of Directors.
“The cloud is quickly becoming the primary footprint for organizations. By prioritizing and investing in security, Google Cloud has earned a differentiated position in the market,” said Tarun Thakur, Co-founder and CEO, Veza. “The initial product integration between Veza and Google Cloud, publicly demonstrated at the Google Cloud Security Summit in May this year, is a powerful example of how intelligence from Veza’s Authorization Graph can bolster the data security of Google Cloud customers. It shows how identity-to-data relationship insights from the Veza platform can be pulled directly into the Google Cloud Policy Analyzer, allowing customers to secure both Google Cloud data (Looker, BigQuery, Google Storage Buckets, etc.) to which multi-cloud identities (AD, Azure AD, Okta, etc.) have permissions and multi-cloud data (AWS, Snowflake, etc.) that is being accessed by Google Cloud identities.”
“Securing cloud environments and data from cybercrime and threats is a key priority of organizations across the globe. “With Veza’s platform now available alongside Google Cloud’s secure and global infrastructure, customers will be able to quickly deploy the solutions they need to better understand, control, and securely take action on their data across their multi-cloud environments.”
Sunil Potti, General Manager and Vice President, Cloud Security, Google Cloud
Veza’s data security platform aggregates identity information from humans, service accounts, and cloud IAM entities, and authorization data from apps and data systems, giving organizations a centralized, SaaS-based control plane to visualize, manage, and control data access controls through Veza’s Authorization Graph. Veza integrates with cloud identity providers, SaaS and custom apps, and data systems, and translates system-specific entitlements and permissions into a common, human-understandable business language, visualized in the platform as effective permissions. The platform brings a novel approach to data security by enabling organizations to address key data security use cases across access reviews and certifications for SaaS apps and data systems, privileged access management to data and apps, data lake security and governance, management of cloud entitlements, and much more. It delivers prioritized insights, provides access workflows, and actionable recommendations for remediation of over-privileged accounts, enabling security and IT teams to correct anomalies and right-size their organization’s permissions to protect against ransomware and other data breaches.
As organizations continue to adapt to the evolving demands of hybrid remote and in-office work, multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments — those with multiple providers of disparate data, app, compute, and infrastructure systems — are becoming the norm. According to the Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report, 89% of companies surveyed are multi-cloud, with only 2% operating in single private clouds and 9% in single public clouds. This trend is leading to a distributed web of data, relationships, and access points that are changing and difficult to track and secure.
Veza and Google Cloud already have a number of joint customers deployed across the industries of SaaS software, marketing technology, and media, including Vox Media.
“To support Vox Media’s growth and increasing M&A activity without compromising security, we need to ensure that across all of our brands, the right users have access only to the data they need access to, and that we have full visibility over what they can do with that data,” says Ateeb Ahmad, Senior Director, IT Infrastructure, Vox Media. With Veza and Google Cloud working together, we’ve been able to seamlessly manage access controls over our data for our largest merger to date, and tightly scope identity-to-data permissions even as our footprint with Google Cloud and other technologies grows.”
“The greatest gifts of the multi-cloud and the generational architectural shift of the modern data systems are also its greatest risks: securing data, scalability, flexibility, and seamless collaboration,” says Thakur. “When organizations enable workers to reach from one cloud to another to leverage data across their entire multi-cloud ecosystem, they foster growth, enable more intelligence, and promote agility. However, such apps and data systems are also more porous and are at increased risk of cybercrime and ransomware. We purpose-built Veza’s Core Authorization Platform for the multi-cloud so that organizations can implement strong access governance policies - Veza continuously evaluates these policies and enables both automated workflows for access reviews, automated access removal for toxic and stale combinations, and facilitates access grant and request for any app, data, and service.”
About Veza
Veza is the data security platform built on the power of authorization. Our platform is purpose-built for hybrid multi-cloud environments to help you use and share your data safely. Veza makes it easy to understand, manage, and control who can and should take what action on what data. We organize authorization metadata across identity providers, data systems, cloud service providers, and SaaS applications — all to address the toughest data security challenges of the modern era. Founded in 2020, the company is funded by top-tier investors including Accel, Bain Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Blackstone, GV, Norwest Venture Partners, and True Ventures
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DATA SECURITY
Netskope | August 03, 2022
Netskope, the leader in Security Service Edge (SSE) and Zero Trust, today announced it has acquired Infiot, a pioneer in enabling secure, reliable access with zero trust security, network and application optimization, and AI-driven operations.
As Netskope Borderless WAN, the addition of Infiot's revolutionary technology will enable Netskope customers to apply uniform security and quality of experience (QoE) policies to the widest range of hybrid work needs, from employees at home or on-the-go, to branch offices, ad-hoc point-of-sale systems, and multi-cloud environments. For customers, all of these capabilities are delivered in a single architecture, using one policy framework, and one console, which dramatically simplifies operations, preserves network performance, and ensures SASE success.
The Benefits of SASE
Businesses and governments are rapidly adopting SASE to safeguard data wherever it moves, support digital transformation efforts, and realize better efficiency and return-on-investment from their technology. Netskope is a widely acknowledged leader in SSE, which describes the security services needed for a successful SASE architecture.
Relevant to SASE growth, Gartner® notes:
"By 2024, 80% of SD-WAN deployments will incorporate SSE requirements, up from less than 25% in 2022"[1]
"By 2025, 80% of enterprises will adopt a strategy to unify web, cloud services, and private application access from a single vendor's SSE platform"[2]
Despite SASE's popularity, however, confusing vendor messaging often accompanies piecemeal product sets that are spuriously marketed as "SASE." Most of these products are not natively integrated, nor able to simplify technology environments, and lack critical network and infrastructure transformation capabilities—all of which risk higher levels of security incidents, network downtime, and poor ROI.
Netskope Borderless WAN combines with Netskope Intelligent SSE in a fully converged SASE platform, uniquely addressing these challenges.
Borderless WAN Unlocks Full SASE Potential
Founded in 2018 by veterans of the SD-WAN market, Infiot was one of only four vendors recognized in the 2021 Gartner "Cool Vendors™ in Cloud Networking"[3] report, was twice named to The Futuriom Top 40[4], and has been successfully deployed by customers in healthcare, retail, education, energy, manufacturing, telecommunications, and other industries.
Infiot technology leverages a cloud-based, zero-touch deployment and provisioning model with multiple physical and virtual appliance form factors. The solution includes built-in routing, a transport-agnostic approach that supports both wired and wireless networking, app-aware QoE enforcement combined with policy-based traffic steering, and other integrated network security functions critical for deployment at the edge. For customers, all of this capability is delivered in a single architecture, using one policy framework, and one console, which dramatically simplifies operations for thinly-stretched networking and infrastructure teams.
As the foundation of the new Netskope Borderless WAN solution, Infiot technology will allow customers to embrace modern, cloud-first networking by leveraging Netskope SASE Gateways, creating secure, optimized connections between any enterprise location, including site-to-site, or the cloud. Netskope SASE Gateways also enable end-to-end optimization for improved app performance, provide increased network resilience through real-time link monitoring and dynamic path selection, and offer identity and per-app access policies to apply zero trust principles to the network.
Netskope Borderless WAN critical use cases include:
Easy access to industry-leading Netskope Intelligent SSE services powered by world-class Netskope NewEdge infrastructure
All-in-one intelligent access, routing, wireless WAN, network security, app assurance, and edge compute as an effective way to modernize, simplify and implement SASE architecture
The ability to offload MPLS and eliminate costs by sending more traffic direct-to-net, eliminate backhauling and leverage fixed/mobile connectivity options (such as 4G/5G)
Better guaranteed WAN connectivity to ensure end-to-end performance, from the "last mile" to the cloud or legacy data center
Simplified operational overhead associated with running custom third-party applications
"Today, leaders across IT, security, and networking and the world's best-known analyst firms agree that the explosion of data and devices, along with the numerous ways that people connect, communicate, and collaborate, make the transformation of both networking and security a critical imperative for businesses and governments. It is in this transformation where Netskope is uniquely positioned to help customers with a fully converged SASE platform. "We're very excited to introduce Borderless WAN, and to welcome Infiot to our growing team."
Sanjay Beri, Netskope CEO
"Today, many-to-many secure optimized connectivity is required to address any user, device, and location, in combination with a zero trust approach that integrates seamlessly with Security Service Edge," said Parag Thakore, Infiot CEO. "Netskope Intelligent SSE is the industry's leading SSE, and the combination of Infiot and Netskope will deliver on the promise of SASE like no other technology vendor can."
"As we continue to transform our patient care experience, we are excited to partner with Netskope,'' said Rick Lacy, Senior Enterprise Network Engineer, CHRISTUS Health. "Netskope Borderless WAN provides adaptive, identity-aware precision access for our medical workers to deliver care from the comfort of their homes, without compromising experience, all at a significantly lower cost to our business. In the future we see many applications for Netskope, including our medical IoT deployments."
"Netskope Borderless WAN is a new mindset. It's a new way of thinking about how our users access our domain and critical applications," said Robert Boopsingh, CIO, The Beacon Insurance Company. "For us, it will replace VPN for our employees and branch offices across our seven countries. We have implemented a zero trust model while delivering superior network access with this modern, secure, cloud-first implementation."
"This is a great move," said Frank Dickson, Group Vice President, Security & Trust, IDC. "What Netskope will now be able to offer, thanks to its compelling security platform and Infiot's technology, is fully secure hybrid-work in-a-box, solving for both networking challenges and security challenges at the same time. It's a self-provisioning network, with security that's automatic. That's not just an abstract framework or a good idea, it's a specific set of benefits and use cases for businesses."
In addition to offering Borderless WAN capabilities, Netskope integrates with key SD-WAN partners, ensuring customers benefit from Netskope Intelligent SSE in mixed environments while maintaining flexibility and choice in vendor partners.
Financial terms of the acquisition are undisclosed. Parag Thakore and the Infiot product team now comprise Netskope's Borderless WAN group, and Infiot's sales team has joined Netskope's sales organization.
Read the Netskope blog for more on today's acquisition news. Visit Netskope.com for more on Borderless WAN and the Netskope SASE platform.
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About Netskope
Netskope, a global cybersecurity leader, is redefining cloud, data, and network security to help organizations apply Zero Trust principles to protect data. Fast and easy to use, the Netskope platform provides optimized access and real-time security for people, devices, and data anywhere they go. Netskope helps customers reduce risk, accelerate performance, and get unrivaled visibility into any cloud, web, and private application activity. Thousands of customers, including more than 25 of the Fortune 100, trust Netskope and its powerful NewEdge network to address evolving threats, new risks, technology shifts, organizational and network changes, and new regulatory requirements.
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SOFTWARE SECURITY
Cymulate | August 12, 2022
Cymulate, the leader in Continuous Threat Exposure Management, today announced the expansion of its Extended Security Posture Management (XSPM) Platform to include advanced insights and analytics capabilities. As businesses struggle to manage attack surfaces and validate security controls, these new data-driven capabilities significantly improve risk visibility and deliver actionable insights for reducing remediation time. Businesses also now gain enhanced levels of granularity for setting and tracking cybersecurity performance metrics and KPIs, which are required for improving cyber resilience.
"Now, more than ever, organizations require automated contextual reporting of exposure findings to understand and optimize their security posture. "Our new analytics layer provides critical data for prioritizing mitigations and fine-tuning configurations for closing security gaps. This prioritization is key for effectiveness in times of skills shortage. Additionally, technical jargon is translated into meaningful reports that can be used to more effectively inform business stakeholders."
Avihai Ben-Yossef, CTO and Co-Founder of Cymulate
Cymulate's platform, the industry's gold standard for continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) programs, provides customers with an efficient way to validate their cybersecurity posture continuously and on-demand. Proven to reduce operational drain and cost, Cymulate automatically tests networks, applications, and endpoint security against the latest threats in the wild. Plus, its native, offensive security technology and capabilities accelerate response time by dynamically assessing and responding to security posture risks.
Customers benefit from Cymulate Security Posture Management Analytics capabilities with the ability to quickly normalize, aggregate, and analyze data across the platform's automated cyberattacks functionality. The holistic solution combines Attack Surface Management, automated red-teaming, Breach and Attack Simulation, automated security validation, and vulnerability prioritization, providing a clear and holistic view of the business's security posture.
Based on global analytics findings, users can improve security readiness by
Establishing baselines on multiple attack vectors and gaining consistency in measuring against them
Viewing and building dynamic dashboards for insights and visualization of results
Demonstrating trends and improving awareness of security posture drift
Tracking remediation efforts with ticketing systems' integrations
Generating customized reports so security teams can rerun attacks to assess whether remediation efforts have been successful
Justifying security spending in a quantifiable manner and showcasing security achievements over a specified period of time.
About Cymulate
The Cymulate SaaS-based Extended Security Posture Management (XSPM) provides security professionals with the ability to continuously challenge, validate and optimize their on-premises and cloud cyber-security posture with end-to-end visualization across the MITRE ATT&CK® framework. The platform provides automated, expert, and threat intelligence-led risk assessments that are simple to deploy, and easy for organizations of all cybersecurity maturity levels to use. It also provides an open framework for creating and automating red and purple teaming by generating tailored penetration scenarios and advanced attack campaigns for their unique environments and security policies.
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