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CipherCloud

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CipherCloud
IndustryInformation privacy
Founded(2010 (2010))
FounderPravin Kothari
Headquarters,
Key people
Pravin Kothari, CEO
John M. Jack, Board[1]
Gilles Samoun, Board
Websitewww.ciphercloud.com

CipherCloud is a San Jose, California-based company that develops secure gateways that locally encrypt sensitive information before it is stored in cloud environments.[2] The company offers gateways that can be installed on computer hardware or work via virtual appliances.[3] CipherCloud founder Pravin Kothari serves as the company's chief executive officer.[4]

History

CipherCloud was founded in 2010 by Pravin Kothari, who previously co-founded ArcSight.[5][6] The company launched in February 2011 and worked solely in Salesforce.com environments.[4] It added Amazon Web Services integration in 2011.[7] CipherCloud raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz later that year.[5] CipherCloud released its Gmail encryption solution in June 2012.[8] By September 2012 CipherCloud's platform could also encrypt Force.com, Chatter, Microsoft Office 365.[9] 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.[9]

CipherCloud closed a $30 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures in December 2012.[2][10] Deutsche Telekom also participated in the funding round through T-Ventures, the telecommunications company's venture capital arm.[11] John M. Jack, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and former CEO of Fortify Software, joined the CipherCloud board following the investment.[2][10] The company opened its European headquarters in London, England in the same month.[7] CipherCloud added an Australian headquarters in 2013.[3]

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 April 2013, CipherCloud filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice against Stack Exchange Network for posting a discussion, which CipherCloud claimed contained copyrighted marketing material.[17][18] and 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." [19][20]

CipherCloud released a new product, Cloud Discovery, in April 2014.[21] Cloud Discovery analyzes cloud applications, which enterprises use for visibility and determine the risk of applications within the organization.[22][23] According to Forbes, Cloud Discovery analyzes cloud applications such as "CRM, finance, HR, IT management, file sharing, collaboration, and productivity."[24]

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.[25]

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.[11] The data is only decrypted when an authorized user retrieves data from the cloud and the data is returned.[11] Encryption keys are stored locally, never leave the user’s site and are not shared with the cloud provider.[26][27] The company uses 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.[3]

Recognition

In April 2011, Gartner named CipherCloud one of its "Cool Vendors" in cloud security.[28]

In 2013, CipherCloud received SC Magazine's Excellence Awards for the "Information Security Product of the Year" [29] and the "Best Emerging Technology in Information Security".[30]

In February 2014, Pravin Kothari was awarded the "CEO of the Year" at the 10th Info Security Global Excellence Awards.[31]

References

  1. ^ Delevett, Peter (5 December 2012). "Wiretap: Marc Andreessen Knows Jack". Silicon Beat. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Arik Hesseldahl (December 5, 2012). "CipherCloud Lands $30 Million From Andreessen Horowitz". All Things D. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Rohan Pearce, "Business Booms for Cloud Encryption Provider After PRISM Revelations," TechWorld, August 22, 2013
  4. ^ a b c Andrew R. Hickey, "CipherCloud Uses Encryption, Tokenization to Bolster Cloud Security," CRN, February 14, 2011
  5. ^ a b Tom Taulli, "CipherCloud Gets $30 Million to Defend the Cloud," Forbes, December 5, 2012
  6. ^ "Ten Years In, Gmail Still Evolving Through Use of Encryption". recode. 4 April 2014.
  7. ^ a b "CipherCloud extends cloud data encryption to AWS". Telecompaper World. 27 October 2011.
  8. ^ "CipherCloud unveils Gmail encryption solution". Internet Business News. 11 June 2012.
  9. ^ a b Rutrell Yasin, "CipherCloud Encrypts Data Across Multiple Cloud Apps," GCN.com, September 6, 2012
  10. ^ a b Richard Nieva (December 5, 2012). "On cloud a16z: CipherCloud raises $30M from Andreessen Horowitz". PandoDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  11. ^ a b c Mikael Ricknäs (March 4, 2014). "Deutsche Telekom works with CipherCloud to protect hosted apps". PC World. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  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. ^ Klint Finley, "Crypto Cloud Skewers Itself With Defamation Claim," Wired, April 24, 2013
  18. ^ "Take-down notice to Stack Exchange Inc. by CipherCloud under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act". CipherCloud. 19 April 2013.
  19. ^ Joel Schectman, "Encryption Vendor's Compliance Claim Questioned," Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2013
  20. ^ "The Morning Risk Report: Co-Op’s Problems Show Image Matters," Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2013
  21. ^ Arnal Dayaratna (5 February 2014). "CipherCloud Releases Cloud Discovery To Enable Enterprises To Detect Cloud Application Usage". Cloud Computing Today. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  22. ^ Mike Vizard (2014-04-30). "CipherCloud Adds Risk Scoring to Free Cloud Application Discovery Tool". IT Business Edge. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  23. ^ "Cipher Cloud Launches Tool to Monitor Shadow IT Use". Information Security Buss. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  24. ^ Ben Kepes (2014-04-30). "CipherCloud Rolls Out A Free Enterprise Cloud Application Discovery Tool". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  25. ^ http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2014/11/19/ciphercloud-scores-monster-series-b/
  26. ^ "Is Cloud Data Encryption the Answer to Patriot Act Fears?" SafeGov.org, November 9, 2012
  27. ^ Shaun Waterman, "Email Encryption Services Suddenly Close Over U.S. Snooping," The Washington Times, August 18, 2013
  28. ^ "Cool Vendors in Cloud Security Services, 2011". Gartner. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  29. ^ "SC Magazine Awards Europe 2013 - winners announced". SC Magazine. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  30. ^ "2013 WINNERS". scmagazine.com.
  31. ^ "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.