Shlomo Touboul
Shlomo Touboul (Hebrew: שלמה טובול) is an Israeli business executive and inventor who has founded several companies including Finjan[1] and Shany (or Shani) Computers.[2][3] He is currently the President and CEO of Illusive Networks, a startup from the Israel-based incubator, Team8.[4][5]
Shlomo Touboul | |
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Born | |
Occupation | Business executive Inventor |
Known for |
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Website | Illusive Networks |
Career
Touboul's career began in earnest with the founding of Shani (or Shany) Computers in 1985.[3][6] The Israeli company and its California subsidiary were sold to Intel in 1994 for between $15 million and $20 million.[2][6] This sale marked the first time a United States corporation had come to Israel to purchase a startup.[6] He went on to work for Intel as a manager in their Network Management Business Unit.[7][8] In 1996, he founded Finjan Software Inc.[2] The company designed and patented antivirus software and anti-spyware software.[9] In 1997, the company received $10 million in investor funding.[10]
In 2000, Touboul left Finjan to start Runway, Israel's first internet incubator, and Runway Telecom Partners, an Israeli telecommunications incubator co-founded with Alcatel. Alcatel invested $14 million in Runway Telecom in 2001. Also in 2001, Finjan encountered financial difficulties and Touboul returned to the company at the request of investor, David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners.[9][11][12] As CEO of Finjan, Touboul often spoke about the risks of advanced spyware[13] and the security gaps in programs and programming languages like JavaScript.[14] He also invented new technologies including static and dynamic code behavior analysis and behavior based blocking technology.[15][16] Touboul helped aggressively market Finjan's proactive defense technology and McAfee incorporated that technology into their products. Touboul also pushed for more funding.[10][12] Finjan secured $8.5 million in funding from an investor group led by Benchmark Capital Israel, Israel Seed Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners. This brought the total amount of funding to $31.5 million over the course of 6 years.[17] Touboul helped Finjan earn an additional $10 million in funding in 2004 from investors including Cisco Systems, Bessemer Venture Partners, Israel Seed Partners, and Benchmark Capital.[18]
Finjan terminated Touboul in July 2005. He started Yoggie Security Systems 3 weeks after his departure from Finjan.[6] This new company designed hardware to solve security issues for individuals using laptops or mobile devices on a public Wi-Fi signal. The hardware also kept security tasks separate from the computer's main CPU, implementing the first security dedicated co-processor for networked based computers and devices.[1][9] Touboul invented 8 patents for Yoggie.[19] Among the Yoggie products are the Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico and the Gatekeeper Card.[1][9][20] Within the first year of its operation, Yoggie received $1.8 million in investment funding from investors in Silicon Valley, Israel, and New York City (including Earlybird Venture Capital).[2][9] In total, Touboul helped raise around $18 million in funding for Yoggie, and the company was eventually sold to Norway-based Cupp Computing in 2011.[15][21]
In 2014, Touboul became the CEO of Illusive Networks, a company founded by Ofer Israeli and Israeli incubator, Team8. Illusive Networks received $5 million in Series A funding from Team8 which had a capital investment of $18 million from investors like Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavor, Marker LLC, Cisco, Alcatel, Bessemer Venture Partners, and others. The company provides information security by deliberately deceiving hackers and tricking them into collecting and using information that is false. The software provides early detection of attacks and advanced persistent threats. Touboul is the current CEO of the company.[4][5][22]
Patents
- U.S. Patent 6,125,390 Method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling in a network filed August 25, 1997; issued September 26, 2000
- U.S. Patent 6,480,962 System and method for protecting a client during runtime from hostile downloadables filed April 18, 2000; issued November 12, 2002
- U.S. Patent 20,040,054,770 Method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling programs in a network filed July 30, 2003; issued March 18, 2004
- U.S. Patent 20,040,153,515 Methods and systems for auto-marking, watermarking, auditing, reporting, tracing and policy enforcement via e-mail and networking systems filed October 7, 2003; issued August 5, 2004
- U.S. Patent 6,804,780 System and method for protecting a computer and a network from hostile downloadables filed March 30, 2000; issued October 12, 2004
- U.S. Patent 7,418,731 Method and system for caching at secure gateways filed May 3, 2004; issued August 26, 2008
- U.S. Patent 6,965,968 Policy-based caching filed February 27, 2003; issued November 15, 2005
- U.S. Patent 7,975,305 Method and system for adaptive rule-based content scanners for desktop computers filed December 9, 2004; issued July 5, 2011
- U.S. Patent 20,090,249,465 System and Method for Implementing Content and Network Security Inside a Chip filed March 11, 2009; issued October 1, 2009
- U.S. Patent 7,756,996 Embedding management data within HTTP messages filed January 30, 2004; issued July 13, 2010
- U.S. Patent 8,627,452 System and method for providing network security to mobile devices filed January 7, 2013; issued January 7, 2014
- U.S. Patent 20,150,180,885 Malicious Mobile Code Runtime Monitoring System and Methods filed February 11, 2015; issued June 25, 2015
References
- Rubenking, Neil J. (29 May 2007). "Yoggie Pico Brings Enterprise Security to the Desktop". PC World. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Feldman, Batya (21 January 2007). "Data protection co Yoggie raises $1m". Globes. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Busse, Torsten; McCarthy, Vance (29 June 1992). "Novell's NMS developers endure snags, delays". InfoWorld. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Weinglass, Simona (9 June 2015). "Team8's illusive networks raises $5 million to trap attackers in the act". Geektime. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Miller, Ron (9 June 2015). "Security Startup Illusive Networks Uses Deception To Catch Hackers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Blackburn, Nicky (10 December 2006). "Pentagon-level security for your laptop". Israel 21c. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Shamah, David (9 June 2015). "New Israeli cyber-security technique: Daze and confuse hackers". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- "Shlomo Touboul Returns to Finjan Software as CEO To Lead New Direction in Proactive Internet Security". PR Newswire. 30 October 2001. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- Grimland, Guy (27 September 2006). "Yoggie Will Change Security, Just Like the iPod Changed Music'". Haaretz. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- "Touboul back in driver's seat: Finjan reaches profitability in Q4". TheStreet.com. 4 February 2002. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- Peretz, Sapir; Alfassy, Yanay (22 February 2001). "Alcatel, Israeli incubator Runway setting up $14 mln start-up investment fund". Globes. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- "Israel's Finjan allies with anti-virus software maker McAfee". TheStreet.com. 6 November 2001. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- Germain, Jack M. (14 August 2004). "New Era of Deadly Spyware Approaches". Tech News World. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Hall, Mark (4 August 2003). "Java Handhelds 'A Bigger Security Problem...'". Computerworld. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- "Yoggie Security Systems". CrunchBase. 1 August 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- "Yoggie Security Systems Introduces 'Firestick Pico' Hardware Firewall". PR Newswire. 7 January 2008. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- Bashan, Tsafrir (10 September 2002). "Network security company Finjan raises $8.5m". Globes. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- Sturgeon, Will (16 June 2004). "Finjan secures $10m funding". ZDNet. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- "Patents by Inventor Shlomo Touboul". www.patents.justia.com. Justia Patents. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- Grabham, Dan (12 January 2009). "Yoggie Gatekeeper Card Pro for Mac review". TechRadar. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- Feldman, Batya (28 July 2011). "Norway's Cupp Computing sets up Israeli R&D center". Globes. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- Bachman, Ulrich (9 June 2015). "Israeli Security Startup, Illusive Networks, Can Lure Hackers With Deceptive Honeypots". Tech News Today. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2015.