Content by Michael Novinson

Palo Alto Founder Nir Zuk on Making the SOC More Autonomous

Michael Novinson  •  December 15, 2022

Businesses should capitalize on AI, ML and robotic process automation to address every event rather than just ignoring the ones deemed unimportant by a SIEM. Palo Alto Networks founder and CTO Nir Zuk says AI can be used to probe security incidents in real time rather than waiting for a breach.

Palo Alto CEO: 'SIEM Needs to Be Eliminated and Replaced'

Michael Novinson  •  December 14, 2022

Speaking at the company's annual conference, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora urged the industry to move away from the alert triage model popularized by SIEM. SIEM tools have for decades highlighted alerts for SOC analysts to focus on, but the most important ones are getting ignored, he warns.

Nikesh Arora on Palo Alto's Approach to Supply Chain Defense

Michael Novinson  •  December 14, 2022

The $250 million acquisition of Cider Security will allow Palo Alto Networks to secure a piece of code from development to its implementation in a runtime environment. CEO Nikesh Arora says the company must understand the tool sets and open-source widgets coming into the customer's supply chain.

Skyhigh Security CEO on Taking a Data-First Approach to SSE

Michael Novinson  •  December 13, 2022

The security industry has traditionally tried to protect sensitive data by putting control points on endpoints or networks, but Skyhigh Security has taken a different approach. The company applies consistent policies around how data is treated across its ZTNA, SWG and CASB offerings.

Ngrok Raises $50M to Drive App Authentication, Observability

Michael Novinson  •  December 13, 2022

Ngrok has closed a $50 million Series A round to provide enterprise-grade authentication and user and session observability without adding complexity for developers or users. Ngrok will use the proceeds to support additional authentication protocols and build out integrations and connections.

Snyk Raises $196.5M Weeks After Laying Off 14% of Workforce

Michael Novinson  •  December 12, 2022

Snyk hauled in nearly $200 million just weeks after laying off 198 employees but had to slash its valuation by $1.1 billion to seal the deal. The company intends to use the Series G proceeds to enhance and expand its developer security platform through both organic investments and acquisitions.

Proofpoint to Buy Deception Firm Illusive, Boost Offerings

Michael Novinson  •  December 12, 2022

Ashan Willy has made his first deal as Proofpoint's CEO, scooping up an identity startup established by Check Point's former cloud and document security leader. The purchase of Illusive will allow Proofpoint to add identity risk discovery and remediation and post-breach defense to its platform.

Claroty CEO Yaniv Vardi on the Need to Guard Medical Devices

Michael Novinson  •  December 9, 2022

The purchase of healthcare security startup Medigate means Claroty can address the IoT, OT, IoMT and connected device needs of hospitals from a single platform. Claroty says its single-platform approach facilitates everything from network mapping and segmentation to continuous threat detection.

Mobile Security Vendor Approov Hires New CEO to Expand in US

Michael Novinson  •  December 8, 2022

Approov has landed a new CEO to help the mobile security upstart expand in the United States and capture more healthcare and financial services customers. The Silicon Valley-based company has captured high-profile European customers such as BMW from its development center in Scotland.

Akamai CEO on How Guardicore Prevents the Spread of Malware

Michael Novinson  •  December 8, 2022

Akamai's acquisition of Guardicore allowed the company to extend from protecting public-facing web content and APIs to safeguarding internal applications and data, says CEO Tom Leighton. The $600 million deal will allow the Boston-area firm to blend its public-facing and internal security assets.

Peter Bauer on Charting Mimecast's New Course Under Permira

Michael Novinson  •  December 7, 2022

Permira's $5.8 billion acquisition of Mimecast has allowed the email security vendor to make product and technology investments that don't provide an immediate financial return. Several buyers expressed interest in taking Mimecast private, and CEO Peter Bauer is glad the firm ended up with Permira.

Dean Sysman on How Axonius Does Asset Management Differently

Michael Novinson  •  December 7, 2022

Asset management historically either looked at network traffic or attempted to put an agent on everything, which Axonius CEO Dean Sysman says left organizations drowning in data. Axonius focuses solely on bringing data together from a customer's existing infrastructure and controls.

SentinelOne Pushes Upmarket to Minimize Effects of Slowdown

Michael Novinson  •  December 6, 2022

SentinelOne plans to go after more Fortune 500 and Global 2000 organizations as the economic downturn prompts customers to shrink the size of their purchases. Over the past year, the company doubled the number of clients spending at least $100,000 and $1 million with SentinelOne annually.

Aqua CEO on Why Cloud-Native Apps Need Supply Chain Security

Michael Novinson  •  December 6, 2022

Software has increasingly relied on components developed by third parties or from open-source libraries, which Aqua Security CEO Dror Davidoff says injects additional risk. On-premises environments are still managed in more traditional ways, with the development and production phases totally siloed.

Profiles in Leadership: Shannon Lawson

Michael Novinson  •  December 6, 2022

Governance issues for public sector CISOs tend to focus more on shifting culture rather than maximizing efficiency for shareholders, as is expected from private sector security leaders. City of Phoenix CISO Shannon Lawson shares why good communication is crucial when a city council is involved.