Hexadite: Deep Dive

Three Challenges Making Cyber Security Automation Appealing:

1. Shortage of high skilled workers. In 2015, there were 200,000 unfilled cyber security positions and it is expected to reach 1.5 million by 2019
2. A manual process limits the response time between detection and prevention
3. The complexity and numerous vendors involved in the Security Infrastructure

When it comes to cyber security, companies make two investments: People and Technology. The companies below attempt to maximize the return on investment.

Company Overview:

Founded: 2014

Raised: $10.5M | 2Rds. | 4 Investors

Category: Network Security, Security Incident Response, and Autonomous systems

Description: provides an Automation Incident Response System to analyze cyber threats and determine whether they require action or are false alarms.

Product Review: The Automation Incident Response System is designed to sit on top of a third party detection system, identify the attacks, and eliminate actual threats. This is where Hexadite separates itself from their competitors. Rather than just identifying the threats, Hexadite remediates the alert.

Dashboard

How the Automation Process works:

1. Identify endpoint and determine the protection level
2. Analyze the endpoint and determine which applications are running by using a dissolvable probe
3. This information is brought back to a virtual appliance which will begin to analyze it against a series of threat intelligence sources located within a threat intelligence cloud
4. The sources include reputation sources, known good, known bad, and the ability to analyze unknown in several different sandboxes
5. Drive towards remediation after the analysis of these objects
6. Once the objects are deemed malicious, the platform takes steps to eliminate the malware

Through this automation process, Hexadite allows companies to visualize the entire event flow to investigate every alert. A Chief Information Officer’s goals should not be to lower the number of alerts on the network, but rather expand their capability to manage alerts. Hexadite frees up resources in the operations environment, enabling employees to tackle people problems, the kind of tasks that automation cannot handle. This technology reduces the cost and maximizes the value of employees, satisfying the company’s investment.

Management Team: All three have founders have served in an elite intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and worked for Elbit Systems Ltd. The team has knowledge in the Cyber Security industry, as well as leading teams focused on launching new products.

Eran Barak, Co-Founder & CEO: Eran earned his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology. Eran started his career at the IDF as the Commander of Technical Operations Department. Eran was a consultant role for Orantech Management Systems Ltd. After serving five years in the IDF, he was the head of Elbit Systems Ltd.’s Cyber Training and Simulation Team, directing sales and business development for new products for emerging markets.

Barak Klinghofer, Co-Founder & CPO: Barak holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the College of Management and Academic Studies. He launched his career at the IDF as an Information Security Architecture Team Leader. After serving six years in the IDF, Barak transitioned to a Senior Security Consultant at Comsec — the largest pure high-end Information Security, Risk Management, and Compliance Consulting firm in Europe. Barak then transitioned to a Elbit Systems Ltd. as a Cyber Solutions Architect, designing solutions for both public and private sectors, and training personnel in National Cyber Security centers. Barak leads the Hexadite’s technology strategy, as co-founder and Chief Product Officer.

Idan Levin, Co-Founder & CTO: Idan spent two years as a software engineer at the IDF. Then, transitioned to a Research and Development Team Leader role where he initiated and led cyber and intelligence technological projects at the IDF. After two years as team leader, Idan went on to Co-Found CallByText, which shut down after two years due to industry changes. Idan moved onto Elbit Systems Ltd as a Software Engineer. From here, Idan became a team leader for Research and Development, responsible for the product lifecycle of the company’s intelligence systems.

Board Members:

• Glenn Chisholm, Chief Technology Officer at Cylance
• Yoav Leitersdorf, Managing Partner at YL Ventures
• Mark Hatfield, Founder and General Partner Ten Eleven Ventures
• Ofer Schreiber Observer, Partner at YL Ventures
• Ray Schuder Observer, Managing Director Hewlett Packard Ventures

Advisors:

• Rob Scott, CEO and President at Bradford Networks
• Jon Miller, Chief Research Officer at Cylance, Inc.

Financing:

Total Equity Funding: $10.5M | 2 Rds. | 4 Investors

Rounds:

• Series A | $8M on February 10, 2016
• Seed | $2.5M on July 1, 2017

Notable Investors:

• YL Ventures
• TenEleven Ventures
• Moshe Lichtman
• Hewlett Packard Ventures

Direct Competitors: Hexadite focuses on observing the activity on a company's network and eliminating threats using automation. These companies are similar to Hexadite because they offer an Orchestration platform, which oversees all activity — providing businesses with a friendly management system. Some of these companies have automation built underneath their platforms, allowing analysts to respond quickly.

Phantom Cyber: Phantom Cyber provides a platform which oversees all activity, assisting with decision making and coordination of multiple independent tasks.

Location: Palo Alto

Raised: $22.7mm | 3 Rds. | 10 Investors

Key Investors: Kleiner Perkins, John Thompson, John C. Becker, and

Uplevel: Uplevel Security applies the combination of Graph Theory and Machine Learning to their orchestration platform, which leverages this capability to identify malicious attacks once overlooked.

Location: NYC

Raised: $2.5M | 1 Rds. | 4 Investors

Key Investors: First Round, Aspect Ventures, and Antecedent Ventures

EclecticIQ: The goal of EclecticIQ is not to automate the role of a Cyber Analyst, rather supplement the role by providing a tool for bootstrapping a Security Infrastructure. EclecticIQ gathers and monitors data for the analyst to use. While companies like Phantom Cyber and Uplevel Security create an autonomous cyber analyst, EclecticIQ built an intelligent data gathering system.

Location: Amsterdam

Funding: $7.5 | 3 Rds. | 2 Investors

Key Investors: INKEF Capital and KPN Ventures

Recent Rd: $6.5 Series A on May 2, 2016

Conclusion: Hexadite has the ingredients to build a lasting company: the founders are skilled in Cyber Security, their Board and Advisors are staffed with key people, an excellent product, and a strategic investor in Hewlett Packard Ventures.

For more information, feel free to reach out:

Email: Jransom240@gmail.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/james-ransom-8ba39ba2