Irvine-based security software maker SecureAuth Corp. is taking a lead role in establishing a consortium of private and public entities to solve the growing problem of data breaches.
The Connected Security Alliance aims to protect organizations and reduce detection time of breaches through an aligned group of security providers that will share best practices, actionable intelligence and adaptive authentication techniques.
“Defeating products one at a time is possible, but significantly more difficult when they are communicating,” said Mike Desai, Secure-Auth’s senior vice president of business and corporate development, referring to prevention. “SecureAuth initiated the Connected Security Alliance to close this gap with best-of-breed security providers focused on solving the modern data breach problem.”
More than 3,100 data breaches occurred last year, according to the 2016 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. Cybercrime and cyber-espionage cost the global economy $445 billion annually in theft and hacking disruptions, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
The latest initiative highlights the growing cybersecurity niche in Orange County, home to a number of emerging and established industry players, including several based in Irvine, such as Cylance Inc., CrowdStrike Inc., Susteen Inc. and US Mobile.
Cylance in June raised $100 million in a Series D round—among the highest in OC tech history—a benchmark first reached last year by software maker CrowdStrike Inc.
The Business Journal in May reported that the Department of Homeland Security has taken part in early discussions to help the University of California-Irvine establish a cybersecurity research institute that will be the first of its kind in the state.
At least four companies with OC roots, including Cylance, have attracted investments from In-Q-Tel, a private venture group funded by the CIA, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
“Our investment from In-Q-Tel marks the government’s recognition of our technology and their desire to apply [artificial intelligence] to the problems they face every day,” said Cylance co-founder and Chief Executive Stuart McClure (see page 1 story).
The other three locals are Kofax Ltd., an Irvine-based business software maker acquired last year for about $1 billion by Kansas-based Lexmark Enterprise Software; WiSpry Inc., a chipmaker in Irvine that was acquired last year on undisclosed terms by Hong Kong-based AAC Technologies Holdings Inc.; and PlateScan, a Newport Beach-based maker of license plate recognition software.
Lexmark executive Reynolds Bish, former chief executive of Kofax, declined to discuss the 2004 investment by the CIA-linked funel, which aimed to advance technologies for “document exploitation,” which is the analysis and use of documents to extract actionable information.Â
The Business Journal was unable to contact the other two companies.
Microsemi in Space
Aliso Viejo chipmaker Microsemi Corp. provided several radiation-tolerant components used in mission-critical applications, including vehicle control, guidance and command systems, during space probe Juno’s five-year voyage across the solar system, including its orbit around Jupiter’s hostile radioactive environment.
The mission over the next few months will focus on collecting data from the largest planet.
Microsemi’s space travel legacy dates to the first Atlas rocket launch in 1957. It more recently supplied key components for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which was sent in part to study Pluto on a mission launched nearly a decade ago.
