Isolating Threats and Providing Better End-User Experience: Menlo Security, Inc.

“For 100% Secure Browsing, Don’t Detect. Isolate”

The founders of Menlo Security believe that the time has come where legacy, detection-based security solutions fail to stop the constant onslaught of web and email malware infections, and hence a whole new architectural approach to security is necessary.

Menlo Security, Inc. was founded in 2012. The company released its isolation platform in January 2015, a global, multi-tenant cloud-based solution to safely isolate all content from web and emails, letting only safe visuals reach the end user. The “Menlo magic” is something that is used to achieve dramatic improvements in malware elimination without impacting the end user’s experience.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Menlo Security has branches in London, U.K.; Tokyo, Japan; and Singapore. The key executives of the company, Amir Ben–Efraim (CEO) and Poornima DeBolle (CPO), are on a mission to eliminate all malware from Web and Email.

Menlo Security: Keeping the Piranha Away From the Gold Fish

The company’s first project was isolating high-risk websites for a Fortune 100 global bank. The bank determined that a high percentage of malware was reaching their end users via uncategorized and other high-risk sites. Simply blocking these sites was onerous, resulting in frequent enduser frustration that legitimate sites necessary for them to be productive were not reachable.

Menlo Security integrated with the bank’s existing infrastructure, layering its isolation platform to address all of the uncategorized and other high-risk sites. The project progressed from lab to full production in less than 3-months, a record achievement given the complexity of the bank’s environment. Now, in over 3 years in production, there have been zero infections from these high-risk websites.

The Muddle in the Puddle

By far the most challenging aspect of security is the rising sophistication level of the attackers and the poor efficacy of traditional cyber defenses at preventing modern malware attacks, resulting in infections, data loss, and more. Furthermore, the toughest challenge in cybersecurity today is noise. There are simply far too many products and offerings, numbering in the thousands, making it impossible for IT professionals to know about or try all these solutions. Finding a way to rise above this noise was a challenge for Menlo Security.

Customers are frustrated with the need to install a rising number of cyber defense layers in their environment. The complexity and costs of cybersecurity are escalating beyond the ability of most enterprises to keep up, yet the total efficacy of these solutions against modern malware is degrading quickly.

Menlo Security was motivated to develop a definitive approach – one that simply works every time. Menlo Security’s aim is to deliver on a promise to all its customers: They will no longer need to worry about infections from the content Menlo Security handles (web and email). Menlo Security’s focus on securing web and email is significant because over 90 percent of enduser infections originate via these vehicles. The company has pioneered a new approach, which is their cloud-based isolation platform that eliminates the risk of malware from the noisiest infection channels and hence frees up precious time for security teams to focus on other problems.

The Company’s Diversification

The journey of building a successful business is a constant challenge. Developing a “game-changing” new solution is hard, and successfully rolling out this solution at scale to millions of end users in demanding IT environments is even harder.

Menlo Security focuses on branding via its mission: “Eliminate Malware from Web and Email.” Menlo Security is known for making this mission work in the world’s toughest and most complex IT environments, ensuring that their customers get the full value of the Menlo Security Isolation Platform and thus recommend it to their friends. Gaining a customer’s trust and fully satisfying them is core to the company’s success.

The company focuses on developing mutually beneficial partnerships with its customers, ensuring that it always has their interest and security in mind as Menlo Security’s business continues to grow. Menlo Security is constantly innovating and ensuring that it will continue to deliver on the promise it makes to its customers, so they no longer need to worry about the risk of web and email infections.

Menlo Security plans to double or triple its entire go-to-market investments across the world in 2018. In 5 years, it aims to deliver a solution to hundreds of thousands of businesses across the globe, eliminating the persistent malware infections from web and email for its customers.

The Founding Partners

Amir Ben-Efraim, Co-founder, and CEO: Amir Ben-Efraim is Co-founder and CEO of Menlo Security. Previously, Amir was VP of cloud security at Juniper Networks where he helped define the company’s strategy to secure the virtualized data center, public and private clouds. He joined Juniper via its acquisition of Altor Networks, which he led as founder and CEO. Prior to Altor, Amir was an executive at Check Point Software, a pioneer in Internet security. He holds an MBA from UCLA, an MSEE from Stanford University, and a BSEE from UC Berkeley.

Poornima DeBolle, Co-founder, and Chief Product Officer: Poornima DeBolle is also Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Menlo Security. Previously, as a product management executive at Juniper Networks, she was responsible for cloud security, security management, and security analytics. Poornima joined Juniper via its acquisition of Altor Networks where she was the VP of Product Management and Business Development. Prior to Altor, she was Head of Business Development at Check Point where she also held product management and engineering roles. Poornima holds an MSCS from Arizona State University.

Gautam Altekar, Chief Architect: Gautam Altekar is also Co-founder and Chief Architect at Menlo Security. Previously, he was Chief Architect at Safely Inc., a Berkeley spin-off that he started with Professor Dawn Song to develop and commercialize isolation security technology that is now at the heart of Menlo Security’s offering. Prior to Safely, Gautam was a graduate student at UC Berkeley where he got his Ph.D. in deterministic replay systems and published several papers at the intersection of cloud computing, operating systems, and program analysis.

“We are trusted by some of the world’s largest enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies and financial services institutions because we provide real-world solutions for real customers.”