Moving towards the new evolution of the cybersecurity world, Illusive Networks, a cybersecurity company in Israel announced that it has added Microsoft Ventures as its newest key investor. Illusive Networks protects networks by building “deception” frameworks to analyze and trap malicious hackers. Microsoft Ventures is the new investment arm of the software giant Microsoft which invests in emerging companies around the globe.
Illusive has not revealed any of the details about the contract but it heightened the startup to more than about $30 million in total raised capital. The security startup took up $22 million taken by NEA in 2015 and investors like Cisco, Innovation Endeavors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Citi Ventures, Marker, and Team8-a security incubator established by alums of Israeli Defense Forces have also invested in the company.
Coming back to recent news about Microsoft Ventures, it is a new follower of Team8 and it enclosed its investment in the firm in company with other investors like Cisco and Citi.
Mony Hassid, the owner of Microsoft Ventures in Israel said “We have made the investment just recently”. He then added,” We have made a decision to invest in the deception market, and we believe there are more security opportunities, which is why we have invested in Team8 in addition to this.”
Illusive Networks which was endowed in 2014 is a part of the security firm, with this only they had other startups like Shape Security and Imperva that manufactures “deception” products. They also have their existing response and detection businesses and with this only they have taken a great step towards discovering and transforming into new technology.
As we know that all the businesses now run on huge digital networks and with this system very critical core of malignant hackers is formed. These hackers work either in teams or in individuals for governments, for criminals, for themselves to destroy networks and do illegal things. This in turn gave rise to cyber attacks and hacking in past few years.
Illusive agrees that hackers nowadays are finding many ways to enter into a network without going through a firewall and they keep them away from such type of methodologies that can stop them to hack a particular network.
Founder and CEO of Illusive Ofer Israeli said in an interview “There will always be a phishing or drive-by-attack”, he then added “Humans are the weakest link and always will be and will continue to make mistakes. But once the hacker is in, now we have an attacker who needs to orient himself.”
Illusive diagnose the hacker and either keeps eye on him or dismisses him for good. Illusive didn’t tell about their customers but Ofer Israeli said there are about 1,000 employees, who are “some of the largest in the world, households name in different verticals.” They are also merged with banks, investors like Citi, different tech companies, law firms, and many more.
Till now there is no news on how Microsoft will work with Illusive but their strategy is to build solutions for their products and how to market their product. Companies like Microsoft and Cisco are already in this business and security is well maintained by them among customers who always need extra care and security for their work. Meanwhile, Illusive is not revealing its valuation in this round.
