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Canada : $14 Million secured by eSentire to increase cyber security efforts [TendersInfo (India)](TendersInfo (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Cyber-security firm eSentire Inc. has raised $14 Million in a new round of funding and will straight away start hiring 40 employees for its research facility in Cambridge. Chief executive officer J. Paul Haynes said that the investment will help the Cambridge-based company expand into new sectors, such as critical infrastructure, technology and bio-pharma. Haynes said, "That is a tall order, we never had to hire so many technologists all at once". "So it is going to be a challenge for us. The skills we require are security specific." Georgian Partners, Cisco Investments, Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund, Edison Partners and Venturelink took part in the round of funding. Haynes said in an interview, "The amount raised is what we need to get ourselves through the next couple of years of capital requirements". "This money was raised specifically to fuel our organic growth." eSentire within the world of computer security focuses in what it calls continuous advanced threat protection. The company, founded in 2001, currently has about 450 clients, mostly in financial services, legal, extractive industries and health-care organizations. Haynes said, "We have a customer base that is literally in all corners of the planet, so we get to see the threats from all the different, emerging areas . He said, "So we are in a better position to develop countermeasures and detection capabilities . "That puts us in a good place to be able to take preventative measures before something bad happens." The company, which at present has approximately 90 employees, says it approaches cyber security differently. Haynes said, "We have re-invented the way cybersecurity works ."We take the position that no matter how good your security defences are, you will get compromised." The company concentrates on detecting signs of a breach and then taking measures to counter the attack. Traditional approaches include password protected data behind firewalls. However Haynes said that approach is not good enough today. "The world we are in now, most of the threats that are effective have never been seen before, so you can't write a formula for something you have never seen before." Haynes said that once eSentire detects anomalies in data, it digs deep into the traffic and uses a forensic model to take apart all of the transmissions to find out what happened. "We have to look at the problem from the 'we've-already-been-hacked perspective' versus we can stop anything." Haynes said, "You can mount a significant defence based on prevention technologies, and the bad guys easily step around it". "They only have to find a crack between a couple of different security technologies to have a successful penetration. It is an arms race. You will never be able to keep up with them." (c) 2014 Euclid Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |