MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--StackRox today announced its platform delivering adaptive threat protection for container technologies, including Docker and Kubernetes. Co-founded in 2014 by industry veterans Sameer Bhalotra (former Sr. Director for Cybersecurity at the White House) and Ali Golshan (co-founder and former CTO of Cyphort), the company is launching a new security platform with enterprise customers in the finance, media, technology, and government sectors, and $14 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital. The StackRox team will showcase the new solution at Black Hat USA, July 25-27 in Las Vegas.
Containers (e.g. Docker) are the new currency of business agility and efficiency for the world’s most innovative enterprises. A 451 Research study of enterprises found that 52% of organizations using containers are running them in production.* However, this yields a new, rapidly-changing type of attack surface that cannot be secured with traditional enterprise security solutions (e.g. perimeter defense products); they do not see activity within container environments. This can leave security teams, from CISOs to SOC analysts, blind and the organization highly exposed to a vast spectrum of cyber threats.
How StackRox Works
StackRox brings to market a groundbreaking, patent-pending security architecture, coupled with deep instrumentation and sophisticated machine learning to deliver the industry’s only adaptive security platform for containers. StackRox enables security teams to see containers in high resolution; defend against threats such as code injection, privilege escalation, malicious lateral movement, and data exfiltration; and streamline security operations – all with a single platform.
During the last year, StackRox has been extensively vetted by dozens of enterprises with high-velocity, distributed environments. IT and business decision-makers are now using StackRox to control their container systems and consolidate key security capabilities such as intrusion detection and prevention (IDS/IPS), web application firewalling (WAF), and endpoint detection and response (EDR) for containers. Security leaders such as Gene Yoo, VP and Head of Information Security for City National Bank, have locked in StackRox to satisfy multiple security requirements at once.
“My current patchwork of security vendor solutions is no longer viable – or affordable – as our enterprise is growing too quickly and cyber threats evolve constantly. StackRox has already unified a handful of major product areas into a single security engine, so moving to containers means positive ROI,” said Yoo.
StackRox will use the $14 million in funding to invest in product development, marketing and sales to meet growing market demand.
“StackRox is rapidly emerging as the default choice for CISOs looking to secure enterprise container systems,” said Aaref Hilaly, partner at Sequoia Capital and StackRox board member. “As companies adopt microservices, security is a top concern. StackRox allows CISOs to put themselves on the leading edge of this trend, and be enablers for the business, rather than constraints. That’s a powerful value proposition for companies who need to be both agile and secure.”
“Our team has worked tirelessly over the past three years to deliver a better approach to security: a truly dynamic security platform that unifies detection, prevention, and response,” said Sameer Bhalotra, CEO and co-founder of StackRox. “From day one, we’ve worked closely with visionary CSOs to conceive and create a new kind of security platform that is carefully designed to advance our field.”
Availability
StackRox is generally available now. Pricing is on a subscription basis per node per year, including enterprise support.
Resources:
- Sign up to see a StackRox demo at Black Hat
- Highlights of the StackRox platform
- Deep dive into the StackRox feature set
- Visit us at stackrox.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
About StackRox
Founded in 2014, StackRox provides the industry's only adaptive threat protection for containers. StackRox delivers a groundbreaking security platform using instrumentation and sophisticated machine learning to protect the agile enterprise. StackRox enables security teams to see containers in high resolution; defend against threats such as code injection, privilege escalation, malicious lateral movement, and data exfiltration; and streamline security operations – all with a single platform. StackRox is the choice of Global 2000 enterprises; partnered with Docker, Amazon, Google, IBM, and Red Hat; and backed by Sequoia Capital.
About Sequoia Capital
From idea to IPO and beyond, the Sequoia team helps a small number of daring founders build legendary companies. We spur them to push the boundaries of what’s possible. In partnering with Sequoia, companies benefit from our unmatched network and the lessons we’ve learned over 45 years working with Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, John Morgridge, Jerry Yang, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Jan Koum, Brian Chesky, Drew Houston, Adi Tatarko and Jack Dorsey, among many others. In aggregate, Sequoia-backed companies account for more than 20% of NASDAQ’s total value. We’re proud that their success also fuels great causes. The vast majority of money we invest is on behalf of non-profits and schools like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT, which means that the returns generated from the incredible achievements of founders can make a massive difference.
*451 Research's “Hybrid cloud drives growing container production use and disruption” from May 2017
Investor Supporting Quotes
“Enterprises with advanced IT infrastructures are moving to containers, but they aren’t sure how to address security,” said Alex Stamos, chief security officer for Facebook. “I was an early investor in StackRox because they had the vision to build a platform to address this coming need, and they designed an innovative new security model for container environments instead of just retrofitting old technology. Now they’re well positioned to help define enterprise security in the post-virtualization future.”
“Microservices are redefining IT delivery right now, and as with many evolutions before this, the security community needs to adapt again,” said John N. Stewart SVP, chief security and trust officer of Cisco who has a personal investment in the company. “I believe StackRox is a company that will help secure infrastructures for the long term.”
“Technologies are frequently adopted because they save money and make it easier to accomplish missions. Unfortunately new technologies are usually deployed without security, an afterthought added on later in a way that does not work well,” said Richard A. Clarke, former special adviser to the president for cyber security, author of Cyber War, and CEO of Good Harbor Security Risk Management. “That’s why I was so excited to be an early investor in StackRox. They’re getting out ahead of the security requirements for containers. Now we can deploy containers and know the system is secure, thanks to StackRox.”
“Enterprises are increasingly looking to startups to deliver bold security solutions,” said Ron Gula, formerly of the National Security Agency, and founder of Tenable Network Security. “StackRox has delivered a true breakthrough in deep visibility and adaptive machine learning for container environments. It’s a powerful runtime defense platform for containers in production.”
“As enterprises adopt new technologies, it is important that they have the right systems in place to secure them,” said Tom Berson, a member of the Board of Advisors at Salesforce, who has more than 45 years experience in cryptography and computer security. “I was an early investor in StackRox because they recognized the megatrend toward containerization and they had the passion to support this with modern security approaches.”
“I decided to invest in StackRox when I met Sameer Bhalotra and recognized his drive to advance the security field,” said Mark Leslie, founding chairman and CEO of Veritas Software, and Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Since then, StackRox has attracted world-class talent and has built an ambitious product that is already in use by Global 2000 customers. I’m excited about what the future holds for this innovative company.”
“AlienVault has a commitment to simplifying security management and building platforms that enable our customers to defend their networks and accelerate response times if a breach occurs. StackRox shares this mission with an innovative platform for enterprises adopting containers that is sophisticated and easy to use,” said Barmak Meftah, president and CEO of AlienVault. “I am proud to support StackRox as the recommended solution for any enterprise running containers.”
“Enterprises are rapidly moving to containers to help them develop and ship code faster. To successfully make this transition, enterprises need a platform that gives them confidence in the security of those containers,” said Jon Chu, former enterprise group lead for Docker who is now at Opendoor. “StackRox is a sophisticated, scalable security platform to meet those needs, and will be a critical component for enterprises as they look to move production workloads to containers.”
“Building a cutting-edge technology company is about just one thing: inspiring people. You have to inspire great technologists to join the company, inspire innovative customers to help refine the product, and inspire the entire market to embrace your vision. Sameer is just that kind of inspiring leader, and the proof is evident in the caliber of his team at StackRox and quality of the customers who use his product,” said Sumit Agarwal, formerly President Obama’s deputy assistant secretary of defense and senior advisor for cyber innovation, and co-founder of Shape Security.
