In September 2010, HP acquired Fortify Software for what Forbes reported was about $265 million and was later folded into HP’s Software Division. Founded in 2003, Fortify makes products and services designed to protect companies from security threats in business software applications, and raised $40 million in 2003 from Kleiner Perkins and Sigma Partners.

Today, we’ve learned that HP Fortify and HP’s enterprise security have sustained some notable personnel losses, which stand to benefit a startup called AlienVault. Founded in 2007, the Silicon Valley-based AlienVault produces unified security management solutions for better threat management, not unlike Fortify. However, AlienVault is the creator of Open Source Security Information Management (or “OSSIM”), which provides a set of tools that allow network and security administrators to access a detailed view of their networks, hosts, devices, servers, etc.

The startup calls OSSIM the “de-facto standard open source security information and event management” system, and the solution has racked up 160,000 downloads and users in over 80 countries, with its customers primarily consisting of defense departments, government organizations, banks and enterprises. In other words, the company develops advanced cyber security products that unifies management of critical security systems and processes across the network, like vulnerability scanning, etc., for customers like the Telefonica, Metro Madrid and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company.

And Today, AlienVault has officially become the new employer of seven former Fortify and HP executives, including the appointment of Barmak Meftah as president and chief executive, and Roger Thornton as CTO. Meftah was formerly the CPO at Fortify, and Thornton is the founder and former CTO.

The new chief executive was also formerly the vice president of software security products at HP, where he led SPI Dynamics as well as Fortify after its acquisition by HP. He has also held senior management positions at Synchron, Oracle, and Price-Waterhouse. Thorton, too, is a Silicon Valley veteran, having held management roles at eBay, E*Trade, Apple, and Sun. The two together led the sale to HP in 2010.

Joining Meftah and Thornton on AlienVault’s leadership team are Jim Yares, Richard Kirk, John Richardson, Jack Marshall and Gail Boddy, all former VPs and executives at HP Fortify, with the exception of Boddy, who was vice president of human resources at HP ArcSight (ArcSight was acquired by HP in September 2010 for $1.5 billion.)

Obviously, AlienVault wasn’t going to acquire Fortify from HP, but they’ve seemingly done the next best thing. Meftah told TechCrunch that the allure was AlienVault’s technology, which he echoed is one of the more widely-deployed security information and event management solutions (SIEM) on the market.

The new chief executive said that HP Enterprise Security business is doing very well — “so it wasn’t about that” — instead he said that the market for SIEM is growing fast and that AlienVault’s solutions make it uniquely positioned to take advantage. With the level of escalated cyber attacks and hacking last year, more so than ever before organizations realize security is an issue that needs to be addressed from the top down, and SIEM, he says, is one of the fastest growing segments within the security market.

Meftah wouldn’t say whether the team is raising a big series B, but clearly there’s something good brewing over at AlienVault. For more, check them out at home here.

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Symplified, which provides identity and access management tools for cloud applications, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Ignition Partners. Existing investor Allegis Capital, Granite Ventures, and Quest Software also participated in the financing, which brings the company’s total funding to $38.8 million.

With more than 3.8 million subscribers, Symplified offers a cloud identity and access management service for enterprises. Businesses can use Symplified for cloud identity management, access control, single sign-on for employees, user management and auditing across any access device using a unique proxy gateway architecture deployed either in the cloud or on premises. The company provides secure access to SaaS applications like Salesforce, ADP, WebEx, Xactly, Taleo, Success Factors and many others.

Clients include HP, Blue Shield, ESPN, Forest Laboratories, Moody’s, Zynga, Netflix, Rambus and Dolby Laboratories. The company says that it tripled revenues and customer adoption last year. Symplified also has a strategic partnership with Amazon in place, and launched the Trust Cloud on Amazon Web Services to become the only provider of identity management services on Amazon’s cloud platform at the time.

Symplified will use the funds to expand operations, service and support, research and development, and marketing.

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alt="Security Manual - Sarbanes-Oxley" vspace=3 align=right
src="http://www.it-toolkits.com/images/Security.gif" width=85
longDesc="Security Manual Template - Sarbanes-Oxley" height=110>Security
Manual for the Internet and Information Technology is over 230 pages in length.
All versions of the Security Manual template include both the Business & IT
Impact Questionnaire and the Threat & Vulnerability Assessment Tool (both
were redesigned to address Sarbanes Oxley compliance).   In addition,
the Security Manual Template PREMIUM Edition  contains 16 detail job
descriptions that apply specifically to security and Sarbanes Oxley, ISO 27000,
PCI DSS, and HIPAA.

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The policies and procedures template now has electonic forms including:

• Blog Policy Compliance
  
• Company Asset Employee Control Log
  
• Email – Employee Acknowledgment
  
• Employee Termination Checklist
  
• Internet Access Request
  
• Internet Use Approval
  
• Internet & Electronic Communication – Employee Acknowledgment
  
• Mobile Device Access and Use Agreement
  
• Employee Security Acknowledgement Release
  
• Preliminary Security Audit Checklist
  
• Security Access Application
  
• Security Audit Report
  
• Security Violation Reporting
  
• Sensitive Information Policy Compliance Agreement

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Cyber-Ark Software, which provides identity management solutions to financial institutions and other enterprise customers worldwide, has raised a healthy $40 million in venture capital funding in a round led by Goldman Sachs and Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP).

Founded in 1999, Cyber-Ark had previously raised $25 million from angel investors and VCs.

The company provides information security solutions to roughly 1000 enterprise clients, enabling them to protect users, applications and data against both insider and external threats.

The company has 170 employees worldwide and is headquartered in the US, with R&D operations located in Israel.

The $40 million investment deal includes the purchase of shares from existing shareholders by Goldman Sachs and JVP, as well as the provision of growth capital for the company.

As part of the round, JVP founder and chairman Erel Margalit will be appointed chairman of the company, and Goldman Sachs VP David Campbell will be joining Cyber-Ark’s board.

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Blue Coat, which specializes in Web security and WAN optimization solutions, has agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by San Francisco-based PE firm Thoma Bravo in a transaction valued at roughly $1.3 billion.

Shareholders stand to receive $25.81 per share per common stock, in cash, and Blue Coat’s board of directors has already approved the agreement. The price represents a premium of almost 50 percent over the company’s closing price on December 8, 2011.

Blue Coat’s solutions protect enterprises from Web-based security threats and for accelerating and optimizing applications and rich media content, such as video, over their networks.

The investor group that is acquiring the company is led by Thoma Bravo and includes the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan through its private investor department, Teachers’ Private Capital.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and Blue Coat expects the transaction to close in the first calendar quarter of 2012.

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Federal agencies have budgeted $6.5 billion for security in 2012, much less
on a percentage basis than other businesses and industries.

alt="Security Manual - Sarbanes-Oxley" vspace=3 align=right
src="http://www.it-toolkits.com/images/Security.gif" width=85
longDesc="Security Manual Template - Sarbanes-Oxley" height=110>The federal
government lags behind most industries when it comes to how much of its IT
budgets are spent on security, pointing to a need for agencies to rethink their
investments as they adopt new technologies.

Many agencies report they don’t feel they have enough money to spend on
security and, in general, security investments by the federal government are
less  than that spent by other business sectors.

In total, federal agencies have budgeted $6.5 billion for all security
investments in fiscal 2012. However, the entire IT budget for the feds for that
year is expected to top $81.3 billion.

Not surprisingly, the Department of Defense spends more than any other agency
on security, according to the report. Its budget in 2012 for security for both
legacy systems and development, modernization, and enhancement, in 2012 is $4.1
billion, according to the report, which does not provide data on total IT
budgets for agencies. The Department of Homeland Security also is one of the
leading security investors among agencies, having budgeted $525.7 million for
security in 2012. 

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Most small business owners believe that Internet security is critical to
their success and that their companies are safe from cyber security threats: but
most fail to take fundamental precautions. This is the major finding from a
survey of US small businesses.

alt="Security Manual - Sarbanes-Oxley" vspace=3 align=right
src="http://www.it-toolkits.com/images/Securitymanual.gif"
longDesc="Security Manual Template - Sarbanes-Oxley">The survey found that
two-thirds (67 percent) of US small businesses have become more dependent on the
Internet in the last year and 66 percent are dependent on the network for their
day-to-day operations. What’s more, 57 percent of firms say that a loss of
Internet access for 48 hours would be disruptive to their business, 38 percent
said it would be ‘extremely disruptive’ and 76 percent say that most of their
employees use the Internet daily.

The vast majority of small business owners think their company is
cyber-secure as 85 percent of respondents said their company is safe from
hackers, viruses, malware or a cyber-security breach and seven in ten (69
percent) believe that Internet security critical to their business’s success.
Additionally, a majority (57 percent) of small businesses believe that having a
strong cyber security and online safety posture is good for their company’s
brand.

Despite this, a closer look reveals that most small businesses lack
sufficient cyber security policies and training. 77 percent said they do not
have a formal written Internet security policy for employees and of those, 49
percent reported that they do not even have an informal policy. More small
business owners also said they do not provide Internet safety training to their
employees than said they do – to a tune of 45 versus 37 percent. And a majority
of businesses (56 percent) do not have Internet usage policies that clarify what
websites and web services employees can use and only 52 percent have a plan in
place for keeping their business cyber-secure.

At the same time, small businesses may not understand how to respond to
online threats or the danger they pose. For example, 40 percent of small
businesses say that if their business suffered a data breach or loss of customer
or employee information, credit card information or intellectual property, their
business does not have a contingency plan outlining procedures for responding
and reporting it. Two-fifths (43 percent) also say they do not let their
customers and partners/suppliers know what they do to protect their
information.

The survey also found that 69 percent of their businesses handle customer
data while about half (49 percent) handle financial records, one-third (34
percent) handle credit card information, one quarter (23 percent) have their own
intellectual property, and one in five (18 percent) handled intellectual
property belonging to others outside their company. When asked to rank the top
concern of small business owners while their employees are on the Internet, 32
percent reported viruses, 17 percent spyware/malware and 10 percent reported
loss of data. Yet only 8 percent are concerned about loss of customer
information, 4 percent about loss of intellectual property and only 1 percent
worry about loss of employee data, even though cyber security experts believe
the loss of any of this kind of information would be devastating to a
business.

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In  2012 there will be new and increasingly sophisticated ways used to
capture and exploit user data, as well as escalated battles over the control of
online information which will threaten to compromise content and erode public
trust and privacy. In the Georgia Tech Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2012
reportspecific issues which are expected to cause the most problems to
organizations are:

alt="Security Manual - Sarbanes-Oxley" vspace=3 align=right
src="http://www.it-toolkits.com/images/Securitymanual.gif"
longDesc="Security Manual Template - Sarbanes-Oxley">The mobile
threat vector - managing tensions between usability, security and
scale

• Mobile applications rely increasingly on the browser, presenting unique
  challenges to security in terms of usability and
  
• Expect compound threats targeting mobile devices to use SMS, e-mail and
  the mobile Web browser to launch an attack, then silently record and steal
  data.
  
• While USB flash drives have long been recognized for their ability to
  spread malware, mobile phones are becoming a new vector that could introduce
  attacks on otherwise-protected systems.
  
• Encapsulation and encryption for sensitive portions of a mobile device can
  strengthen security.

Botnets - the evolving nature of adversaries, tactics,
techniques and procedure

• Botnet controllers build massive information profiles on their compromised
  users and sell the data to the highest bidder.
  
• Advanced persistent adversaries query botnet operators in search of
  already compromised machines belonging to their attack targets.
  
• Bad guys will borrow techniques from Black Hat SEO to deceive current
  botnet defenses like dynamic reputation systems.

Controlling information online - a new frontier in information
security

• Security researchers are currently debating whether personalization online
  could become a form of censorship.
  
• Attackers are performing search engine optimization to help their
  malicious sites rank highly in search results.
  
• The trend in compromised certificate authorities exposes numerous
  weaknesses in the overall trust model for the Internet.
  
• Advanced persistent threats and the intersection of cyber threats with
  physical and critical infrastructure

Advanced persistent threats will adapt to security measures until
malicious objectives are achieved

• Human error, lack of user education and weak passwords are still major
  vulnerabilities.
  
• Cloud computing and computer hardware may present new avenues of attack,
  with all malware moving down the stack.
  
• Large, flat networks with perimeter defenses at the Internet
  ingress/egress point break down quickly in the face of advanced persistent
  threats.

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IBM is announcing the acquisition of Q1 Labs, Massachusetts-based provider of security intelligence software. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close in fourth quarter, were not disclosed.

Q1 Labs software collects and analyzes information from hundreds of sources across an organization such as the network, applications, user activity, mobile endpoints, and physical security devices such as badge readers — including both cloud-based and on-premise sources.

Q1′s network security software, QRadar, include log, threat, and compliance management solutions; as well as Flow and Event Processors for processing network and security events, and network and application flow data. Q1 Labs analytics and correlation capabilities can automatically detect and flag actions across an enterprise that deviate from prescribed policies and typical behavior to help prevent breaches, such as an employee accessing unauthorized information.

The company has 1,800 clients and serves various industries, including publicly traded companies; financial institutions; retail organizations; healthcare institutions; utility, manufacturing, and transportation companies; educational institutions; and federal, state, and local government agencies. Q1 Labs also has strategic partnership with Juniper Networks; Enterasys; Nortel; McAfee; Foundry Networks, and 3Com.

IBM says the acquisition will help its clients more intelligently secure their enterprises by applying analytics to connect information from key security domains and creating security dashboards for their organizations. IBM also plans to apply Q1 Labs’ analytics to drive greater security intelligence capabilities across its security products and services such as identity and access management, database security, application security, enterprise risk management, intrusion prevention, endpoint management and network security.

Q1 Labs, which has raised $29 million in funding, will actually join the newly-formed IBM Security Systems division, which will be led by Brendan Hannigan, CEO of Q1 Labs. For Big Blue, network security and services is a $94 billion opportunity.

Q1 Labs will join more than 10 strategic security acquisitions IBM has made in the last ten years and the more than 25 analytics-related purchases, including the recently announced acquisition of security analytics software firm, i2. IBM says it currently monitors 12 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries and holds 3,000 security patents.

Big Blue’s recent acquisitions include Algorithmics, and I2.

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alt="Security Manual - Sarbanes-Oxley" vspace=3 align=right
src="http://www.it-toolkits.com/images/Security.gif" width=85
longDesc="Security Manual Template - Sarbanes-Oxley" height=110>When
criminals compromise financial institutions and other corporate targets, often
the victims like to keep it as quiet as possible. At least the new wave of very
public assaults shines a bright light on the poor state of security. Businesses,
government agencies, and educational institutions reported 50 percent more data
breaches in 2008 than in 2007, exposing the personal records of at least 35.7
million Americans.

The financial consequences of such breaches can be severe. Many organizations
lose customers and revenue because of the violation of trust incurred from a
breach. Due to the growing number of state privacy laws, most breaches require
that thosewhose information is compromised must be notified.Most organizations
now pay for credit monitoringservices for several years for all those impacted
by a breach – these services typically cost about $100 per
person per year.
And in some cases, organizationsare subject to fines for revealing personal
information.

The lack of even elementary training is one problem. Another is that people
don’t get penalized for failure. In the vast majority of cases, neither
end-users nor IT professionals face penalties for their role in a security
disaster.

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