Seculert
Seculert is a cloud-based cyber security technology company based in Israel. The company’s technology is designed to detect breaches and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), attacking networks. Seculert’s business is based on malware research and the ability to uncover malware that has gone undetected by other traditional measures.[1]
Private company | |
Industry | IT Security |
Founded | 2010 |
Headquarters | Petah Tikva, Israel |
Key people | Dudi Matot - Co-founder and CEO Aviv Raff - Co-founder and CTO Alex Milstein - Co-founder and COO |
Owner | Radware |
Website | http://www.seculert.com |
In 2012, the company was named one of the hottest new security start-ups by The New York Times,[2] and a finalist in the SC Magazine awards for Rookie Security Company of the Year.[3]
History
Seculert was founded in 2010 by former RSA FraudAction Research Lab Manager Aviv Raff, former SanDisk Product Marketing Manager Dudi Matot and former Finjan VP of Operations Alex Milstein. In 2011, the company launched their first offering, Seculert Echo.[4] Their Seculert Sense, traffic log analysis, was released in October 2012. At the RSA Conference in February 2013 Seculert unveiled the Beta version of Seculert Swamp, a malware analysis sandbox.
Seculert is privately funded and headquartered in Petah Tikva, Israel. In July 2012, the company announced $5.35M in venture funding from YL Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.[5] In July 2013, Seculert announced that they raised an additional $10 million in Series B funding from Sequoia Capital.[6]
On January 31, 2017 Seculert was acquired by Radware, a company based out of Mahwah, New Jersey, USA.[7]
Notable alerts
In January 2012, Seculert discovered that Ramnit started targeting Facebook accounts with considerable success, stealing over 45,000 Facebook login credentials worldwide, mostly from people in the UK and France.[8][9][10]
In March 2012, Seculert reported that Kelihos botnet, which was distributed as a Facebook worm, was still active and spreading.[11][12][13]
In July 2012, Seculert, in conjunction with Kaspersky Lab uncovered an ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting Iran and other Middle Eastern countries dubbed Mahdi (malware).[14][15][16][17]
In August 2012, Seculert, Kaspersky Lab and Symantec revealed the discovery of Shamoon,[18] a sophisticated malware that attacked Qatar's natural gas firm, Rasgas and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, ARAMCO.[19][20][21]
In December 2012, Seculert uncovered Dexter, a new malware that steals payment card data from point-of-sale terminals used by stores, hotels, and other businesses. Most of the victim businesses were English-speaking, with 42 percent based in North America, and 19 percent in the U.K. Dexter infected systems running a variety of different versions of Windows, including XP, Home Server, Server 2003, and Windows 7.[22][23][24][25]
In January 2013, Kaspersky Labs (KL) revealed a cyber espionage operation dubbed Red October. The next day, Seculert identified a special folder used by the attackers for an additional attack vector.[26] In this vector, the attackers sent an email with an embedded link to a specially crafted PHP web page. This webpage exploited a vulnerability in Java, and in the background downloaded and executed the malware automatically.[27][28]
In January 2014, the Seculert Research Lab identified a new targeted attack that used Xtreme RAT. This attack used spear phishing emails to target Israeli organizations and deploy the piece of advanced malware. To date, 15 machines have been compromised including ones belonging to the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]
The Dyre Wolf malware campaign made headlines in early April as a banking trojan that bypassed 2 factor authentication in order to steal over $1 million from corporate bank accounts.
Automated breach detection product
Several detection and protection technologies are combined in a cloud-based solution that works to identify new cyber threats.
Automated Traffic Log Analysis is a cloud-based analysis engine that leverages HTTP/S gateway traffic logs collected over time, analyzing petabytes of data to identify malware activity. It automatically identifies unknown malware by detecting malicious patterns and anomalies. Seculert Traffic Log Analysis pinpoints evidence of targeted attacks.[38][39]
Elastic Sandbox is an elastic, cloud-based automated malware analysis environment. The Seculert Elastic sandbox includes automatic analysis and classification of suspicious files over time. It analyzes potentially malicious files on different platforms and can simulate different geographic regions. The Seculert Elastic Sandbox generates malware behavioral profiles by crunching over 40,000 malware samples on a daily basis and by leveraging data from its crowdsourced threat repository.[40]
References
- "Seculert". Retrieved 22 January 2013.
- Perlroth, Nicole (2012-12-31). "Outmaneuvered at Their Own Game, Antivirus Makers Struggle to Adapt". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- "2013 SC Magazine US Awards Finalists". SC Magazine. 2012-11-29. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Wauters, Robin (2010-10-06). "Seculert Secures Funding For Cloud-Based Threat Detection Software". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Williams, Alex (2012-07-10). "Seculert Gets $5.35 Million Investment For Cloud-Based Botnet Detection Service". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- "Israeli cyber security firm Seculert raises $10 mln in funding". Reuters. 2013-07-08.
- "Radware Acquires Seculert to Enhance Data Center Security". Radware. 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
- Smith, Catharine (2012-01-05). "Facebook Ramnit Worm Swipes 45,000 Usernames, Passwords". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Masters, Greg (2012-01-05). "New Ramnit variant steals Facebook logins". SC Magazine. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Leyden, John (2012-01-05). "Dammit Ramnit! Worm slurps 45,000 Facebook passwords". The Register. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Leyden, John (2012-03-29). "Kelihos zombies erupt from mass graves after botnet massacre". The Register. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Colon, Marcos (2012-03-29). "Kelihos lives on thanks to Facebook trojan". SC Magazine. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Constantin, Lucian (2012-03-30). "Kelihos gang building a new botnet, researchers say". TechWorld. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- "Mahdi - The Cyberwar Savior?". Seculert. 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Finkle, Jim (2012-07-17). "Another cyber espionage campaign found targeting Iran". Reuters. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Zetter, Kim (2012-07-17). "Mahdi, the Messiah, Found Infecting Systems in Iran, Israel". Wired. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Brumfield, Ben (2012-07-19). "Cyberspy program targets victims in Iran, Israel, companies say". CNN. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- "Shamoon, a two-stage targeted attack". Seculert. 2012-08-16. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Weitzenkorn, Ben (2012-08-23). "Shamoon Worm Linked to Saudi Oil Company Attack". NBC News. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Zetter, Kim (2012-08-30). "Qatari Gas Company Hit With Virus in Wave of Attacks on Energy Companies". Wired. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Schreck, Adam (2012-09-05). "Virus origin in Gulf computer attacks questioned". Associated Press. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Goodin, Dan (2012-12-11). "Dexter" malware steals credit card data from point-of-sale terminals". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Higgins, Kelly (2012-12-11). "'Dexter' Directly Attacks Point-of-Sale Systems". Dark Reading. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- McAllister, Neil (2012-12-14). "Dexter malware targets point of sale systems worldwide". The Register. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Armerding, Taylor (2012-12-19). "Dexter malware's source still unknown, connection to Zeus disputed". CSO Magazine. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- ""Operation Red October" - The Java Angle". Seculert. 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Goodin, Dan (2013-01-15). "Red October relied on Java exploit to infect PCs". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- McAllister, Neil (2013-01-16). "Surprised? Old Java exploit helped spread Red October spyware". The Register. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- "Israeli defence computer hacked via tainted email -cyber firm". Reuters. 2014-01-26.
- http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4481380,00.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/hackers-israeli-defence-ministry-computers
- "Israel defence computers hit by hack attack". BBC News. 2014-01-27.
- http://www.securityweek.com/israeli-defense-computer-hit-cyber-attack-data-expert
- "Israel to Ease Cyber-Security Export Curbs, Premier Says". Bloomberg.
- Halpern, Micah D. "Cyber Break-in @ IDF". Huffington Post.
- http://www.scmagazine.com/2013-sc-magazine-us-awards-finalists/article/270471/
- http://www.redherring.com/events/red-herring-europe/2013_finalists/
- Higgins, Kelly (2012-11-07). "Hunting Botnets In The Cloud". Dark Reading. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- Nusca, Andrew (2012-12-05). "Training big data's eye on cybersecurity threats". ZDNet. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- http://www.securityweek.com/seculert-adds-elastic-sandbox-simulate-malware-over-time-geographic-locations