AlertEnterprise, a Freemont, California-based provider of security, risk, and compliance management solutions geared toward the critical infrastructure space, announced today that Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has led a $19 Million investment in the company. Existing investors, Opus Capital and Startup Farms Investors also participated in the round.
AlertEnterprise’s “Security Convergence” solutions are designed to help companies deal with theft, fraud and acts of terrorism against critical infrastructure assets. Its software can help customers analyze and respond to risks from blended threats across IT Systems, Physical Access Control Systems and Industrial Control Systems.
“The most insidious risks are simple acts that slip between physical and logical security systems,” says Jasvir Gill, Founder and CEO of AlertEnterprise. “The physical security, industrial control systems and IT systems in companies today, operate in segregated organizational silos. However, real-world security incidents don’t come neatly packaged as IT or non-IT incidents. The secret to true security lies in eliminating these silos, analyzing the risks in real-time, and seeing the big picture.”
The company’s solutions can monitor alerts and events from control systems from vendors like ABB, Siemens, Honeywell, Emerson, SEL, and GE, which gives it a unique advantage to fully support compliance with NERC CIP, CFATS, FERC Standards of Conduct, NIST SP800-53, FISMA requirements and many others.
Interestingly, KPCB invested in Jasvir’s previous startup Virsa Systems, an application security and compliance software company that was acquired by SAP for $400 Million to become the core of the SAP GRC software product line.
Ray Lane, the KPCB Managing Partner who led the round and is also the non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Hewlett Packard, states that “Infrastructure Security has lagged behind the requirements of both the market and the Nation. With its disruptive innovation, AlertEnterprise has captured the imagination of CIOs and CISOs alike by practically demonstrating that power outages and incidents related to pipelines, oil rigs and refineries can be prevented with powerful and predictive risk analytics.”
Some of the largest asset owners and operators in the utilities industry, in particular, are challenged with complex compliance requirements directed at securing the grid and operating assets. Michael Assante, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) for the North American Electricity Reliability Council (NERC), the body empowered to enforce reliability standards, states that, “Compliance alone cannot make Utilities secure. The heightened threats against power generation and grid operators need continuous active policy enforcement. The AlertEnterprise solution cuts across organizational silos and precisely delivers the necessary level of enforcement.” Michael Assante is the President of the National Board of Information Security Examiners (NBISE).
Responding to challenges facing the Utilities industry, NIPSCO Director, NERC Compliance and Operations Technology, Tim Conway states, “Cyber security and insider threats are some of the most pressing concerns for utilities today. Utilities are subject to regulations that must take into account both logical and physical security. Having a single solution that can address security, access management and compliance across all these organizational silos has become an industry necessity. AlertEnterprise will enable us to secure our critical operating assets and meet our regulatory obligations.”
In addition to Critical infrastructure Protection, AlertEnterprise offers solutions for Airport Security, Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution, Nuclear Power Plant Cyber Security, Federal Cross-Agency Identity and Access Management, and Multi-Regulatory Compliance Automation. The company counts many utility companies as customers including Florida Power & Light/NextEra, Allegheny Energy, OG&E, Toronto Hydro, and NIPSCO.
KPCB Managing Partner and former President and Chief Operating Officer of Oracle, Ray Lane, will join the company’s Board of Directors.
Founded in 2007, AlertEnterprise has offices in Fremont, California; Singapore; Paris, France; and Chandigarh, India.
Arguably the most prestigious venture capital firm in the country, the investment by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is a huge vote of confidence in the company serving an industry that requires increased levels of security to keep pace with the increasing level and sophistication of threats.
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