Zscaler

Zscaler, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Network Security, Computer security, Internet security
Founded	2008
Headquarters	San Jose, California, USA
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jay Chaudhry, CEO Lane Bess, COO William Welch, CRO Daniel Druker, CMO Sydney Carey, CFO Amit Sinha, CTO K. Kailash, founder
Products	Internet security products
Number of employees	more than 500
Slogan	The world's best Internet security, made easy through the magic of cloud computing.
Website	www.zscaler.com

Zscaler is a global cloud-based information security company that provides Internet security, web security, next generation firewalls, sandboxing, SSL inspection, antivirus, vulnerability management and granular control of user activity in cloud-centric, mobile and Internet of things environments.^[1] As of 2015, Zscaler provides automated threat forensics and dynamic malware protection against advanced cyber threats, such as advanced persistent threats and spear phishing for more than 6,000 corporate, government and military organizations with more than 15 million paying users.

The company provides a cloud-based integrated-platform approach to Internet security, in contrast to individual security appliances offered by vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, FireEye, Blue Coat Systems, Cisco, Check point and Websense.

History, Fundraising, and Valuation

The company was founded in 2008 by Jay Chaudhry, a serial security entrepreneur that previously founded AirDefense, CipherTrust, CoreHarbor and SecureIT^[2] and K. Kailash, the former chief architect of NetScaler. Zscaler raised $5 million in 2012 in venture capital from Lightspeed Venture Partners as part of a $38 million expansion round.^[3] In 2015, Zscaler had a reported company valuation of more than $2 billion.^[4]

Technology

Zscaler is a cloud-based information security platform delivered through what is reportedly the world’s largest security cloud of more than 100 global data centers and more than 1,000 points of presence. To use Zscaler, Internet traffic from fixed locations such as branch offices or factories, roaming laptops, tablets and mobile phones and Internet of things devices is routed through Zscaler points of presence before going on to the public Internet. Localized data centers store security policies that can be pushed worldwide in seconds, following users as they travel around the globe to enforce these policies without latency.^[5] Zscaler serves as a cloud-based proxy and firewall, routing all traffic through its software to apply corporate and security policies, eliminating the time and money companies spend managing Web filtering, data leakage protection, SSL inspection, advanced threat protection and security on its own servers. Zscaler is designed to address the challenge of managing security in a world where cloud computing, mobility and the Internet of things are eroding the network perimeter.^[2] Zscaler centralizes administration of users and policies on a single Web interface with a simple visualization. Zscaler can provide comprehensive user reports in nearly real-time and is constantly gathering global threat data to protect its customers.^[5]

Security as a Service Platform

Most security products have historically been point solutions deployed as hardware appliances, Zscaler is very different as a cloud-based Security as a Service platform that requires no on-premise or on-device hardware or software. Zscaler is a broad platform integrating many different security applications - from web security to next generation firewall, SSL decryption and inspection, data leakage protection, intrusion detection, and advanced threat protection, so it can also be thought of as cloud-based, carrier-grade, globally deployed Unified Threat Management system.

Additional products

Zscaler for Advanced Persistent Threats

Zscaler for APTs provides protection from zero-day attacks and advanced persistent threats by combining proactive protection against known threats, file-based behavioral analysis, botnet detection and blocking, data exfiltration detection and blocking, plus security analytics such as threat intelligence feeds.^[6] Zscaler for APTs provides a comprehensive solution that consolidates the commoditized features of existing security appliances to protect, detect and remediate advanced security threats.^[7]

Zscaler Next Generation Firewall

Zscaler Next Generation Firewall is an application and user-aware firewall that provides visibility and control over network traffic. It is unique in that it is entirely cloud-based and does not require any on-premise hardware or software, making it well suited for protecting branch offices, retail stores, factories, remote location, mobile devices and Internet of Things deployments. Zscaler Next Generation Firewall also includes traditional firewall capabilities such as control over network ports and protocols. Combined with the rest of the capabilities of the Zscaler platform, Zscaler Next Generation Firewall is typically deployed as a cloud-based Unified Threat Management system by both large enterprises and midsized companies.

Zscaler Security Preview

In 2014, Zscaler released a free HTML5-based network security testing tool called Zscaler Security Preview. Available on Zscaler's home page, Security Preview runs a suite of automated tests that inspects an organization's network security posture from the perspective of the client device that is running the test. For example, it tests to see whether virus samples hosted on content delivery networks are blocked, it attempts to exfiltrate valid payment card and social security numbers, and it detects whether communications with servers in prohibited countries such as North Korea and Iran are blocked. The tool is useful to quickly understand whether current network security infrastructure is properly implemented and configured.

Zscaler Mobile Security

Zscaler Mobile Security extends its real-time analysis and protection to mobile devices in BYOD environments by routing mobile traffic through its global cloud.^[8] Zscaler Mobile Security provides visibility into mobile application traffic, protection from web-based threats and rogue applications and policy enforcement on mobile devices.^[9]

Partnerships

Zscaler integrates with single sign-on providers including RSA, Okta, OneLogin and Ping Identity to enable simplified cloud application security.^[10] Zscaler integrates with mobile device management (MDM) vendors, including AirWatch and MobileIron to enhance MDM with mobile security.^[11] Zscaler integrates with security information and event management (SIEM) vendors, including HP ArcSight, IBM QRadar and Splunk, enabling data analysis, digital security forensics and compliance with industry and government regulations.^[12]

Global Carrier Adoption

Close to 50% of Zscaler's business is touched by one of the global telephone companies. As of 2015, AT&T, Verizon, British Telecom, Orange Business Services and Swisscom are all actively reselling Zscaler as part of their networking and security services. In January 2015, Zscaler closed a nearly $10,000,000 transaction at a Global 100 manufacturing company with British Telecom. Carrier adoption of Zscaler within very large distributed enterprises is tightly tied to cloud-enabled networking, which is the elimination of traffic backhaul across Multiprotocol Label Switching networks, in which network traffic is broken out locally via commodity Internet connections to local Zscaler data centers instead of being backhauled to corporate data centers over MPLS, typically resulting in 80% to 95% reduction in MPLS traffic with commensurate reduction in wide area networking costs.

Recognition

2008

Zscaler was named “Startup of the Week” by InformationWeek^[13]

2009

Zscaler was named a “Cool Vendors in Software-as-a-Service Security, 2009” by Gartner^[14]

2011

Zscaler was named a “Cool Vendors in Cloud Security Services, 2011” by Gartner.^[15] Zscaler was named a “Leader” in the Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateway.”^[16] Zscaler was named an “Emerging Vendor 2011: Security Vendors” by CRN.^[17] Zscaler was named a “Best Web Content Management Finalist” in the SC Magazine^[18]

2012

Zscaler was named a “Leader” in the Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateways.”^[19] Zscaler was named an “Emerging Vendor 2012: Security Vendors” by CRN.^[20] Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry was named a “The Top 25 Disrupters Of 2012” by CRN.^[21]

2013

Zscaler was named a “Leader” in the Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateways.”^[22] Zscaler was named an “Emerging Vendor 2013: Security Vendors” by CRN.^[23] Zscaler was named a “Tech 10: Hot Antivirus Alternatives For 2013” by CRN.^[24] Zscaler was named a Red Herring “2013 Top 100 North America: Winners.”^[25]

SSL traffic considerations

The Zscaler service operates by having all of the Internet traffic from its clients sent through Zscaler's network of global data centers.^[26] In order to monitor or inspect secure HTTPS connections, Zscaler implements what is known as a man-in-the-middle attack to decrypt SSL traffic for users going through the Zscaler service.^[27][28] When a user attempts to open an HTTPS website, Zscaler mimics the website, as the user accesses the server. In response to a CONNECT request by the web browser, the server will send Zscaler a server certificate. Zscaler will then check the validity of the cert and then create a new cert signed by Zscaler. The new cert will be sent to the Web Browser, and assuming that the user has pre-installed a company root cert, the browser will check the validity of the cert and then accept and install the cert and then will continue to access the website. If a root cert has not been installed, then the user will receive an error stating that there is a problem with the website’s security certification and user will have the option to continue or not.

Since Zscaler is able to decrypt traffic, they are able to scan the content for any malicious traffic that would have otherwise come in over an encrypted channel while applying policy based on the unencrypted traffic for the user. They can also detect and block outbound attempts to exfiltrate data, such as by botnets, even when connections are encrypted by SSL. When they enable SSL decryption they also allow the administrator to specify which URL categories or custom domains should not be decrypted in order to ensure user privacy. Zscaler also has the option of blocking access to specific URL categories or customer domains, regardless of whether SSL decryption is enabled or not.

User Concerns

In a corporate or academic environment, the decision to use Zscaler, and the rollout of the Zscaler services, will not necessarily be known by the individual users (visitors, employees, or students). In particular, an HTTPS connection is intended to be secure against eavesdropping, and in other contexts, the way in which Zscaler replaces the SSL certificate of the website in order to monitor HTTPS traffic would be considered a cryptographic attack. Without explicit knowledge as to the extent of Zscaler's monitoring, users may assume that a secure HTTPS connection is indeed secure against eavesdropping. Such a connection may be used for personal reasons such as personal webmail or online banking or shopping, thereby unknowingly exposing the user's personal details to Zscaler.

It should be noted that Zscaler can be configured to bypass SSL interception for specific sites, applications or category of site (e.g. Banking, Medical).

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zscaler.

• Zscaler Security Preview
• New York Times: Web Filtering Moves to the Cloud
• Techworld: Startup promises cloud-based security service