Security software systems

Ever since the Internet burst into the world, viruses have graduated into another class. Take, for example, the lovely graphics you saw in site "X". You were surfing and entered the site but, beneath the surface, there is an army of agents working extremely hard to exploit the event.

There are of course good agents, but there are also double agents. The double agents remind one of mice that get into the pantry in the dead of night, and chew at everything in sight, quietly and undisturbed. It was this kind of nightmare that prompted Security-7 of Yokneam to develop its SafeGate software.

From its inception, Jospe and co-founder Doron Elgressy established the copany with the intention of developing a complementary product for Firewall, the powerful barrier that protects organizational networks from malicious applications. SafeGate can "work" on Firewall’s box, thereby enabling close cooperation with Check Point, which developed marketing channels ahead of Security-7.

SuperGate’s policing task complements Firewall’s protection system. Firewall checks and navigates entry and exit according to Internet Protocol (IP), or "requests identity or passport number," says the company’s CEO and president. Once Firewall permits entry to the organization’s network, SafeGate acts as an internal security guard. "We respect the fact that Firewall allowed you entry, and want to verify your intentions," explains Jospe. SafeGate software examines the code, and whether there is any deviation from the organization’s information protection policy.

SafeGate possesses a management system that enables this policy to be defined. When there is a discrepancy between the policy and the potential behaviour of the applet, the software blocks the applet and notifies the user, to explain what was barred and why. To make definition of organizational policy easier, the software supplies three default levels of severity, which, Jospe says, were designed according to market research that the company conducted.

Security-7 is not alone in the market, and Jospe admits that competition causes him sleepless nights. Direct competition, that comes from the direction of Israeli companies Finjan and Eliasim, and from Digitivity, do not particularly disturb him. "We are the only ones capable of running on the same box as Firewall itself," he explains.

Firewall companies do not bother Jospe either. He says that not one of the 200 Firewall manufacturers does a "content verification" - which is what Security-7 does.

Jospe is more anxious that the veteran anti-virus companies, such as Network Associates and Symantec will enter the field. "When your technology is connected to the Internet, you cannot sleep well," says Jospe. However, he says that entry level is high: 18 months of development for 10 people "highly skilled in Firewall and anti-virus".

Algressy, 28, is extremely well versed in anti-virus - he formerly worked at Eliashim and Memco, and owned his own anti-virus company called Domash. Jospe, 50, graduated from the Technion in electrical engineering. He spent eleven years in the Israeli airforce in data communications, and managed the marketing and sales programs at Scitex America. He served as general manager of Motorola Information Systems, and COO at NetVision.

Security-7 has been selling SafeGate for eighteen months in the US, Europe and the Far East, mainly through Firewall distributors. It has a marvelous agreement with Computer Associates (the second largest computer company in the world), which will include SafeGate in its large and respected Unicenter platform anti-virus software, which last year sold more than one million copies.

Jospe says that there are two similar agreements in the works with "giant entities". Security-7 has approved enterprise status, and a subsidiary in Boston. It also has another product up its sleeve, which fits nicely into the paranoia of in-house organizational threats. This product runs on the work station, not the Firewall (Jospe: "A definite change from our Check Point model"). The product’s purpose is to protect work station files against external or internet computer penetration by means of source identification. A beta installation of the product, called SafeAgent, is already in use at the Chase Manhattan bank in New York.

While the cost of the first product, the SafeGate, is determined according to the size of the organization ($2,000-$10,000), the SafeAgent is priced according to the work station. Jospe notes that Chase Manhattan has 50,000 employees.

Security-7’s initial equity, $800,000, came from private investors who knew the founders personally. In August ’97, the company raised $2 million from the Oppenheimer (Genesis) Fund, and a Boston bank venture capital fund. In an additional exercise completed this June at $4.8 million, the institutional shareholders again invested in the company, together with the Yozma fund and Benny Steinmetz. Company value following the capital raising exercise stands at $15 million.

Jospe is not yet ready to divulge sales figures, but claims the company is expected to break even in the second or third quarter of 1999. "In y opinion, profit is not the most important question. We belong to a new category, and the market share that we can establish is important. Our strategy is not directed at profitability, however unpleasant it may sound. In the Internet world, de facto standards have first to be determined."

"Globes": You mean getting foot in a new market in order to have a large public issue, and then lever the speculative trend of Internet shares?

Jospe: "Of course."

There is a wave of acquisitions in this field. Have you been approached with offers?

"Yes, but it is too early."

Published by Israel's Business Arena August 18, 1998