Former Verizon and NXP Semiconductors executives have launched Privafy, a cloud-native, security-as-a-service application to protect data in motion.
The company says it offers a “fundamentally new” approach to data security that protects organisations against modern mobile threats while disrupting the cost associated with what can be complex, archaic network solutions.
“Data has never been less secure,” said Privafy co-founder and CEO Guru Pai (pictured above). “Solutions developed by the networking industry to protect data are rapidly becoming obsolete for today’s cloud-and mobile-based workloads.
“Also, technologies such as SD-WAN and cloud-based point solutions focus more on cost reductions, but don’t address the underlying security vulnerabilities to sufficiently protect internet-reliant businesses. Privafy was purpose-built to secure data in today’s modern world. We have democratised internet security to protect data in a way that is easier to deploy and far more economical for any-sized enterprise, regardless of where or how it works.”
Pai cited a Gartner research document, The future of network security is in the cloud, which noted that digital business transformation inverts network and security service design patterns, shifting the focus to the identity of the user and/or device, and not the datacentre. The report said the idea of the legacy datacentre as the hub of business network and network security architecture was obsolete and had become “an inhibitor to the needs of digital business”.
Privafy’s core application is designed to secure data in motion as it moves across locations, clouds, mobile and the internet of things (IoT). The application integrates the functionality of encryption systems and VPNs, firewalls, distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS and IPS), data loss prevention and deep content inspection technology.
Functionality includes a proprietary absolute encryption schema that defends against man-in-the-middle or unauthorised snooping attacks, and endpoint identity protection that protects against endpoint cloning. Proprietary technology also protects remote workforces on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux, enabling support for all the environments in which an enterprise operates, including headquarters, branch offices and global sites, mobile and personal computers, private and public clouds, software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications such as Salesforce, Slack and Dropbox, and the IoT.
One early adopter is consumer electronics firm Vizio, whose CTO, Bill Baxter, said: “Because our organisation is global and geographically dispersed, we were looking for a solution that would be easy to implement and use, and that secured both our physical locations and our cloud workloads.
“Privafy’s cloud-native application essentially gave us a private network on the public internet that required none of the complex provisioning of legacy systems and was quickly deployed to protect our corporate data.”
The company is now working with channel partners, broadband and wireless carriers and managed service providers to ensure the application is available globally. To date, it has received $22m in minority investments from private investors to scale the business.
