Company:ZeroFOX

From HandWiki
ZeroFOX
TypePrivate
IndustryCyber Security
Founded2013
FounderJames C. Foster, Evan L. Blair
HeadquartersBaltimore, Maryland
Number of locations
3
Websitewww.zerofox.com

ZeroFOX is a cyber security company based in Baltimore, Maryland.[1][2] It provides cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) for organizations to detect risks found on social media and digital channels, such as phishing, malware, scams, impersonator accounts, piracy, counterfeit and more.

History

ZeroFOX was created in 2013 under the name Riskive, but changed to its current name months later. The company began as a startup in an 8,000 sq. ft. space inside Betamore - a startup incubator in Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood. In 2015, ZeroFOX raised $27 million in Series B funding. By 2016, the company had outgrown its space and moved to an 18,000 sq. ft. space inside a former Pabst Brewing facility in South Baltimore.[3] In 2017, ZeroFOX raised $40 million in funding led by Redline Capital Management, a European venture firm, and Silver Lake Waterman, a fund that focuses on pre-IPO companies. Prior investors New Enterprise Associates, Highland Capital Partners and Core Capital also contributed. The investment helped bring ZeroFOX’s total funding to $88 million.[4]

ZeroFOX partners with other software organizations such as IBM, Hootsuite, Splunk, ThreatQuotient, and others to visualize, analyze, and predict cyber security threats to respond quickly to reduce the impact of incidents. [5]

In 2020, ZeroFox closed a new $74 million round of financing led by Intel Capital. This funding round was one of the largest a Maryland cyber firm has landed in recent years. This brings ZeroFox's backing to $162 million to date. [6]

ZeroFOX has satellite offices in Santiago, London, and Bengaluru.

In October 2020, ZeroFOX acquired Cyveillance from LookingGlass in a move designed to merge Cyveillance's threat intelligence data cache and dark web intelligence capabilities with the ZeroFOX Digital Risk Protection Platform.[7]

Zerofox took over social media intelligence for the FBI from Dataminr at the end of 2020 with a $14 million contract. This led to decreased visibility leading up to the 2021 United States Capitol attack, and led agents to calling it an expletive sounding similar to Zerofox.[8][9]

References

  1. Tweney, Dylan (April 30, 2014). "Funding Daily: Very big private equity and very small microgadgets". Venture Beat. https://venturebeat.com/2014/04/30/funding-daily-very-big-private-equity-and-very-small-microgadgets/. 
  2. Kulwin, Noah (Dec 8, 2015). "Capital Gains: Another $2 Billion Crosses Into Uber's Event Horizon, Peloton Raises Big Cash". ReCode. http://www.recode.net/2015/12/6/11621196/capital-gains-another-2-billion-crosses-into-ubers-event-horizon/. 
  3. "South Baltimore Business Roundup". 21 January 2016. https://www.southbmore.com/2016/01/21/south-baltimore-business-roudnup-3/. 
  4. "South Baltimore Business Roundup". 19 July 2017. https://www.southbmore.com/2017/07/19/south-baltimore-business-roundup-138/. 
  5. "ZeroFox Global Partner Program". https://www.zerofox.com/partners/. 
  6. https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/02/20/baltimores-zerofox-raises-one-of-marylands-largest.html
  7. Osborne, Charlie. "ZeroFOX acquires Cyveillance threat intelligence business from LookingGlass" (in en). https://www.zdnet.com/article/zerofox-acquires-cyveillance-threat-intelligence-business-from-lookingglass/. 
  8. Aaron C. Davis (31 October 2021). "Warnings of violence before Jan. 6 precipitated the Capitol riot". Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/warnings-jan-6-insurrection/. "But the end-of-the-year changeover limited the FBI’s understanding of what was happening online at a key juncture, just as extremists were mobilizing. FBI agents started using an alternative service known as ZeroFox that was unfamiliar to many in the bureau. The change came as a surprise, causing confusion about how to use the new system.Some agents and analysts felt the new service was a significant downgrade, particularly when it came to tracking things on Twitter. Within the FBI, some frustrated agents quickly started using a derisive nickname for ZeroFox — replacing the “Fox” with a similar-sounding expletive, to indicate how little use it seemed to have.31“It wasn’t that we were blind, it just turned out to be a bad time to have less visibility into what was happening online, because we were changing systems and a lot of people didn’t really know the new system,” said one person familiar with the matter." 
  9. Ken Dilanian (8 March 2021). "Why did the FBI miss the threats about Jan. 6 on social media?". NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/fbi-official-told-congress-bureau-can-t-monitor-americans-social-n1259769. "Fact check: false. FBI agents have said in court records that they monitor public social media, and the bureau recently signed a $14 million contract with a "threat intelligence" company called ZeroFox "to proactively identify threats to the United States and its interests" on the internet. For years, the FBI has had a similar arrangement with DataMinr, which can flag social media postings of interest to its clients." 

External links