GlobalCrypto recently announced the release of Bunkermail, an encryption-based file transfer system. BunkerMail is a web based application that enables users to send messages and files to other users that are fully encrypted with the receiver’s keys so that only the intended recipient can unpack the message. Building on top of their RealMe authentication software, Bunkermail uses cryptographic keys embedded into images to make sure files are fully encrypted from the sender’s computer all the way to the receiver’s computer.
Bunkermail is a breeze to use. Bunkermail looks and feels like web-based e-mail, even with the strong cryptographic security. Founder and CEO Todd Merrill says, “If you can send a web-based email, you can use Bunkermail.” Adoption is also easy for your IT staff.
Congrats to Todd and GlobalCrypto on their newest release!
At DEMO earlier this month, Purewire launched PurewireTrust, a free Web app where users can go to verify the reputations of the
people, places (URLs), and things (Web apps) they interact with online. In a presentation described by BusinessWeek as incredibly smooth, Dr. Paul Judge showed a snapshot view into what Purewire Web Security Service provides on the back-end to enterprises that purchase its security-as-a-service offering. PurewireTrust is being offered free to the online community to raise awareness on the importance of understanding those interactions in order to bring safety and trust back to online communication, collaboration and commerce.
Dr. Paul Judge's impassioned presentation, which you can watch below, won a DEMOgod award.
Purewire Trust is in open beta and anyone can now create a profile and share their Trust Badge.
Last week while the rest of the world was hustling to get ready for Thanksgiving, ATDC member company Pramana was hustling to get featured in Forbes.
Pramana's HumanPresent technology enables Web sites and applications to know that a human is on the other side of a transaction. The problem is this. The current alternative to HumanPresent technology are those annoying deformed letters, words, and numbers, that sites such as TicketMaster use to make sure that only humans and not robots are trying to access their site. These are called CAPTCHAs for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. And who has not tried a CAPTCHA at least once and failed?
With Pramana's technology CAPTCHAs could be a thing of the past. And that would make the Internet a much more enjoyable place.
In Network World's annual roundup of IT security companies Purewire was selected as one of the 10 companies to watch.
Here is what Network World had to say about Purewire.
Founded: 2007
Headquarters: Atlanta
Focus: The Purewire Gateway managed security service for protecting enterprise users from being victimized by malicious-code attacks
while surfing the Web online. (Compare secure Web gateway products.)
Why it's worth watching: Managed security services are gaining in popularity, but there are few today that act as secure Web gateway services.
How company got its start: Co-founders Mike Bruinisse, president and COO; Paul Judge, CTO; and Mark Caldwell, vice president of sales, were formerly
executives at messaging-security firm Ciphertrust, acquired by Secure Computing two years ago. They saw an opportunity in
providing Web security as a service.
How company got its name: Purewire expresses the idea of providing business users with a connection to the Internet free of malware during Web use.
CEO: Steve Raber was formerly president and CEO at CipherTrust, and his 25-year career includes managing director at iGate Capital,
vice president and general manager of Compaq's global professional services, and 18 years with IBM.
Funding: $1.75 million from its co-founders and angel investors, and $2 million from other sources, including Imlay Investments, and
$1 million from InterSouth Partners and the State of Georgia Seed Fund.
Customers: Technical College System of Georgia, the state
agency responsible for overseeing the state's technical colleges and
adult-education programs, S1 Corp., Peachtree benefits and Tabletop
Media
The latest company to emerge from VentureLab and join ATDC is Pramana, Inc. Conceived at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, Pramana is developing an easy-to-deploy technology called HumanPresent, that allows users to validate that Internet clicks are generated by human beings rather than bots, software cheats, or other automated systems.
Pramana has a simple but powerful technology premise that anyone associated with the Internet immediately understands. That idea, coupled with a strong founding team that includes Sanjay Sehgal, Guru Rajan, Merrick Furst, and Matt Chanoff, enabled Pramana to raise $850,000 in initial funding led by Imlay Investments.
Due to the nature of the problem Pramana is addressing, the company is maintaining a “stealth mode” profile.
In a Reg D filling ATDC member company Damballa disclosed that they have recently raised a $6 million series B round. The investment was led by InterWest and included follow on participation from Noro-Moseley and Sigma.
While the round closed some time ago, Damballa, and thus ATDC as its partner, did not promote this achievement. Damballa is in serious stealth mode and one of the keys to their ongoing success is staying that way.
Damballa is an early growth stage Internet security company which has developed a method of identifying and tracking the formation of botnets (a group of PCs infected and controlled by hackers called botmasters that are used for committing criminal activities like spam, phishing and fraud). Botmasters are the bad guys. They will do whatever it takes to achieve their means. Knowing things about the good guys (Damballa) might help them to defeat the methods that Damballa has devised to find them. That is all I will say about that.
Damballa is attacking a huge problem. Seven out of the ten of you that are reading this have a computer that has been infected with a bot. Damballa is bringing in the people to scale their business and to continually improve their product.
While I would like to say that you are going to be hearing lots of great things about them in the future, I can not. What I will tell you is that they will be doing things that you may not ever hear about or know.
Just like that little bot on your PC.
Damballa, Inc. is the latest in a recent surge of companies to join ATDC.
Damballa monitors the Internet fabric to pinpoint BotArmy formation and rallying activity. Born out of pioneering research from the Georgia Tech Information Security Center, Damballa is the most effective means of directly addressing the bot compromise dilemma.
Damballa’s approach focuses on BotArmy communications and rallying behavior. Traditional security products are signature-based and LAN focused and thus are ineffective against BotArmies that continuously morph their own code and distribute their activities across multiple LANs. It is the constancy of the command and control systems that transforms a collection of compromised hosts into a BotArmy. Damballa provides unrivalled security to Global 1000 clients and OEM partners by delivering actionable, real-time intelligence to address the BotArmy threat.
Interesting company addressing an important and interesting problem.