CipherCloud

CipherCloud
Industry Information privacy
Founded (2010)
Founder Pravin Kothari
Headquarters San Jose, California, United States
Key people
 Pravin Kothari, CEO
John M. Jack, Board[1]
Gilles Samoun, Board
Website www.ciphercloud.com

CipherCloud is a cloud security company based in San Jose, California. The company enables cloud services adoption while ensuring security, compliance and control. CipherCloud’s cloud security platform provides comprehensive cloud application discovery, usage and risk assessment, data protection – searchable strong encryption, tokenization, data loss prevention, key management and malware detection – and extensive user activity and anomaly monitoring services.

History

CipherCloud was founded in 2010 by Pravin Kothari, who previously co-founded ArcSight.[2][3] The company launched in February 2011 and worked solely in Salesforce.com environments.[4] It added Amazon Web Services integration in 2011.[5] CipherCloud raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz later that year.[2] CipherCloud released its Gmail encryption solution in June 2012.[6] By September 2012 CipherCloud's platform could also encrypt Force.com, Chatter, Microsoft Office 365.[7] It also launched Connect AnyApp, which allowed users to "simply specify fields on Web pages to be encrypted," and data format and operations would be preserved.[7]

CipherCloud closed a $30 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures in December 2012.[8][9] Deutsche Telekom also participated in the funding round through T-Ventures, the telecommunications company's venture capital arm.[10] John M. Jack, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former CEO of Fortify Software, joined the CipherCloud board following the investment.[8][9] The company opened its European headquarters in London, England in the same month.[5] CipherCloud added an Australian headquarters in 2013.[11]

CipherCloud Searchable Strong Encryption (SSE) achieved the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 validation from the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP), a joint effort between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) of the government of Canada.[12][13] In February 2013, CipherCloud joined Box Inc. (formerly Box.net), an online file sharing and cloud-content management service, to bring CipherCloud's encryption to file-sharing and file-hosting services such as Box.[14] In January 2014, CipherCloud acquired CloudUp Networks.[15] CloudUp Networks developed software that helped users track data as it moved through cloud environments and restricted that data from leaving the cloud without authorization.[16]

In June 2013, the Wall Street Journal questioned CipherCloud's claim that "by using its software, companies can legally upload sensitive defense technology data to public online services." [17][18]

In April, 2014 CipherCloud released a new product, CipherCloud for Cloud Discovery.[19] Cloud Discovery analyzes cloud applications, which enterprises use for visibility and determine the risk of applications within the organization.[20][21] According to Forbes, Cloud Discovery analyzes cloud applications such as "CRM, finance, HR, IT management, file sharing, collaboration, and productivity."[22]

In November 2014, the company announced closing its Series B funding round of $50 million. Transamerica Ventures led the round, joined by Delta Partners, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and T-Ventures, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom.[23]

Platform

CipherCloud's platform serves as a gateway that encrypts data in realtime before sending the data into a cloud environment via Searchable Strong Encryption (SSE) which has been validated by FIPS 140-2.[10] The data is only decrypted when an authorized user retrieves data from the cloud and the data is returned.[10] Encryption keys are stored locally, never leave the user’s site and are not shared with the cloud provider.[24][25] The platform is also capable of using tokenization, which is the process of substituting a sensitive data element with a non-sensitive equivalent.[4] It also offers data loss and malware detection and monitoring for cloud environments.[11]

Recognition

In April 2011, Gartner named CipherCloud one of its "Cool Vendors" in cloud security.[26]

In 2013, CipherCloud received SC Magazine's Excellence Awards for the "Information Security Product of the Year" [27] and the "Best Emerging Technology in Information Security".[28]

In February 2014, Pravin Kothari was awarded the "CEO of the Year" at the 10th Info Security Global Excellence Awards.[29]

References

  1. ↑ Delevett, Peter (5 December 2012). "Wiretap: Marc Andreessen Knows Jack". Silicon Beat. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tom Taulli, "CipherCloud Gets $30 Million to Defend the Cloud," Forbes, December 5, 2012
  3. ↑ "Ten Years In, Gmail Still Evolving Through Use of Encryption". recode. 4 April 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Andrew R. Hickey, "CipherCloud Uses Encryption, Tokenization to Bolster Cloud Security," CRN, February 14, 2011
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "CipherCloud extends cloud data encryption to AWS". Telecompaper World. 27 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "CipherCloud unveils Gmail encryption solution". Internet Business News. 11 June 2012.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Rutrell Yasin, "CipherCloud Encrypts Data Across Multiple Cloud Apps," GCN.com, September 6, 2012
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Arik Hesseldahl (December 5, 2012). "CipherCloud Lands $30 Million From Andreessen Horowitz". All Things D. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Richard Nieva (December 5, 2012). "On cloud a16z: CipherCloud raises $30M from Andreessen Horowitz". PandoDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Mikael Ricknäs (March 4, 2014). "Deutsche Telekom works with CipherCloud to protect hosted apps". PC World. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Rohan Pearce, "Business Booms for Cloud Encryption Provider After PRISM Revelations," TechWorld, August 22, 2013
  12. ↑ "CipherCloud achieves US and Canada’s highest security rating FIPS 140-2". Cloud Computing Intelligence. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  13. ↑ "Validated FIPS 140-1 and FIPS 140-2 Cryptographic Modules". CMVP. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  14. ↑ "SC Magazine, February 25, 2013
  15. ↑ Alex Williams (January 16, 2014). "CipherCloud Acquires CloudUp Networks To Beef Up Its Cross Platform Data Tracking". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  16. ↑ Cromwell Schubarth (January 16, 2014). "Cloud security startup CipherCloud buys CloudUp Networks". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  17. ↑ Joel Schectman, "Encryption Vendor's Compliance Claim Questioned," Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2013
  18. ↑ "The Morning Risk Report: Co-Op’s Problems Show Image Matters," Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2013
  19. ↑ Arnal Dayaratna (5 February 2014). "CipherCloud Releases Cloud Discovery To Enable Enterprises To Detect Cloud Application Usage". Cloud Computing Today. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  20. ↑ Mike Vizard (2014-04-30). "CipherCloud Adds Risk Scoring to Free Cloud Application Discovery Tool". IT Business Edge. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  21. ↑ "Cipher Cloud Launches Tool to Monitor Shadow IT Use". Information Security Buss. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  22. ↑ Ben Kepes (2014-04-30). "CipherCloud Rolls Out A Free Enterprise Cloud Application Discovery Tool". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  23. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/11/19/ciphercloud-scores-monster-series-b/
  24. ↑ "Is Cloud Data Encryption the Answer to Patriot Act Fears?" SafeGov.org, November 9, 2012
  25. ↑ Shaun Waterman, "Email Encryption Services Suddenly Close Over U.S. Snooping," The Washington Times, August 18, 2013
  26. ↑ "Cool Vendors in Cloud Security Services, 2011". Gartner. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  27. ↑ "SC Magazine Awards Europe 2013 - winners announced". SC Magazine. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  28. ↑ "2013 WINNERS". scmagazine.com.
  29. ↑ "CipherCloud Honored for CEO of the Year and Five Product Categories at the 10th Annual 2014 Info Security Global Excellence Awards". The Business Journal. Retrieved 27 June 2014.

External links