Israeli cyber security company Claroty has come out of stealth mode and announced it has completed a financing round of $32 million. The startup also announced that it is launching its protection platform for industrial networks.
Established as part of Israeli cyber security foundry Team8, Claroty’s backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Marker, ICV, Red Dot Capital Partners, and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. The company enters the market as the most substantially funded cyber security startup focused on protecting industrial control systems, and with one of the deepest teams in OT security from organizations including Siemens, IBM, Waterfall Security, Palo Alto, iSIGHT Partners (FireEye), ICS2, and Industrial Defender.
With offices in Tel Aviv and New York, Claroty was founded by CEO Amir Zilberstein, chief business development officer Galina Antova, and CTO Benny Porat.
Zilberstein said, “The reason these critical systems are increasingly exposed to cyber threats is twofold. Industrial and IT networks are becoming considerably more interconnected in order to achieve important business goals, but industrial control systems were originally designed with safety and resilience, not cyber security, as primary objectives.”
“We have been keenly interested in the critical infrastructure security sector for the last few years,” noted, David Cowan, partner Bessemer Venture Partners. “We looked at several companies in the space and were not impressed until we found Claroty. They have the best vision for addressing this unique sector, a very impressive management team and serious depth in both OT and cybersecurity. Claroty has the best technology we have seen in the market and the ability to advance it at a pace that others can’t match.”
From power plants and oil refineries, to manufacturing and the electric grid, the susceptibility of industrial control systems to cyber-attacks was largely a taboo subject and a dark art. However, since the disclosure of Stuxnet, vulnerability reports have exploded, and many attacks both new and old have been classified as cyberattacks. Recent examples include the Ukraine Power Grid and German Steel Mill attacks.
While many legacy cyber security companies claim they can apply traditional Information Technology (IT) security to Operational Technology (OT) systems, the reality is that everything about OT from protocols to staff is different and requires technology specifically designed for the mission. The Claroty Platform has been built from the ground up with an unprecedented understanding of ICS, SCADA and other essential OT networks as well as deep cyber security knowledge.
“Applying traditional cyber security tools to OT systems is a recipe for failure,” said Antova. “Having spent years securing OT environments, it is critical that the solution truly speaks the unique language of OT. While CISOs have been handed the responsibility to monitor and protect industrial systems, their teams lack real-time visibility into these operational networks. Claroty is not just making a security tool that provides extreme visibility into OT networks and protocols, it’s also creating a platform on which IT and OT teams can work toward shared cyber security and process integrity goals.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 13, 2016
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