Utility-backed venture capital firm invests in company to secure energy operations and security infrastructure
Fremont, CA – March 21, 2019 – Attivo Networks®, the award-winning leader in deception for cybersecurity threat detection, today announced that Energy Impact Partners(EIP), a leading utility-backed energy investment and innovation firm, has become a strategic investor in the company. The funding enables Attivo Networks to expand its portfolio of energy sector-specific deception technology and increase its go-to-market activities to broaden its customer base of utility companies around the world.
“Operational technology environments present their own unique set of challenges associated with securing devices, which often cannot run anti-virus software, be patched, or are simply not designed to be interconnected,” said Tushar Kothari, Attivo Networks CEO. “Deception technology provides early detection and misdirection of in-network threat actors attempting to tamper with operational technology environments. Attackers will unknowingly attempt to compromise a decoy asset, providing the highest caliber alert backed by the adversary intelligence required to quickly isolate and remove the threat.”
Cybersecurity continues to be a top priority for the energy sector given the potential economic and human safety impact of an outage to critical infrastructure. The rapid digitization of the energy industry has brought many operational benefits but has also increased the potential attack surface and the need for enhanced visibility and detection of cybersecurity threats.
“The threat landscape facing industrial customers continues to grow at a relentless pace,” said Sameer Reddy, Partner at Energy Impact Partners. “Attivo Networks’ deception platform provides operators with a high-fidelity detection layer to better secure enterprises and industrial control systems of all sizes.”
Attivo Networks provides deception technology based on decoys and lures, which are designed to efficiently detect and misdirect in-network attacks. The decoys seamlessly deploy in operational technology environments and appear identical to industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA). With one mistaken touch, the attacker reveals their presence and arms security teams with ultra-high-fidelity alerts. Once an alert is raised, the solution’s built in attack analysis engine automates the process of gathering threat intelligence, correlating attack data, and responding to an alert. This reduces the investigation and response time from hours to minutes.
Energy Impact Partners joins Bain Capital, ForgePoint Capital, and Singtel Innov8 in the company’s Series C funding round. Visit attivonetworks.com/solutions/energy for more on deception technology for the energy sector.
About Attivo Networks
Attivo Networks®, the leader in deception technology, provides an active defense for early detection, forensics, and automated incident response to in-network attacks. The Attivo ThreatDefend™ Deception Platform provides a comprehensive and customer-proven platform for proactive security and accurate threat detection within user networks, data centers, clouds, and a wide-variety of specialized attack surfaces. The portfolio includes expansive network, endpoint, application, and data deceptions designed to efficiently misdirect and reveal attacks from all threat vectors. Advanced machine-learning makes preparation, deployment, and operations fast and simple to operate for organizations of all sizes. Comprehensive attack analysis and forensics provide actionable alerts, and native integrations that automate the blocking, quarantine, and threat hunting of attacks for accelerated incident response. The company has won over 75 awards for its technology innovation and leadership. For more information, visit www.attivonetworks.com.
About Energy Impact Partners
Energy Impact Partners (EIP) is an investment firm focused on the conversion of the energy industry towards a decarbonized, decentralized, digitized and electrified future. EIP brings together leading innovators with some of the world’s most valuable, forward-looking energy and operating companies to create a cleaner, more secure and resilient future. Through close collaboration with its investor base, EIP seeks to bring the best companies, buying power and vision in the industry to bear on the emerging energy landscape. EIP’s utility partners include Southern Company, National Grid, Xcel Energy, Ameren, Great Plains Energy, Fortis Inc., AGL, Avista, MGE Energy Inc., TEPCO, PTT Public Company Limited, OGE Energy Corp., TransCanada, and Alliant Energy. For more information, visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.
