Constant visibility and security of data with the right level of security to maintain safe operational use.
Tel Aviv, Israel-based Ray Security emerged from stealth with $11 million seed funding and a desire to change the way corporate data is protected. The funding was co-led by Venture Guides and Ibex Investors.
The basis of the Ray Security platform is to understand how corporate data is used, and to apply the correct level of security at the correct time, in real time. “The platform aligns protection with real usage: active data stays available with the right controls, and dormant data gets stricter safeguards,” says Ariel Zamir (CEO and co-founder at Ray Security).
This capability is provided by an AI engine that initially learns and understands the corporate data, and then continuously monitors (and predicts) data usage. It recognizes data in use, knows whether it is normal and acceptable use (based on understanding how the enterprise normally operates), and can predict the next steps for that normal usage. It then dynamically applies the correct level of security that keeps data in use safe while not impeding operations.
Any unusual behavior triggers dynamic controls – like revoking access, enforcing MFA, or blocking sessions – to stop threats as they emerge. “It detects unusual access to sensitive data, sudden mass downloads, privilege changes, or AI tools pulling data they shouldn’t. It also detects ransomware or an insider threat. It can revoke access, require additional authentication, block the session, or alert security teams, removing risky sharing links, or quarantining data. The key is it acts immediately, not hours later,” explains Zamir.
Despite the offer of automatic and real time mitigations, the enterprise does not cede control to the AI. “We don’t replace human judgment, we speed up response time,” continues Zamir. The enterprise decides which actions the AI can take automatically, which need approval, and which run in ‘observe only’ mode first.
“Customers tend to apply different automation levels to different threats: when the threat seems to be related to a low-to-medium volume of data, customers prefer to have a human involved in the loop. However, when the system identifies a large amount of data being accessed rapidly, downloaded or even corrupted, some customers prefer to respond automatically to prevent any risk of massive damage.”
Unexpected encryption activity (ransomware?) can be blocked instantly and automatically; sudden large scale data being sent out of the system (double extortion?) can be stopped. But all actions taken by the platform are logged, reversible and can be paused at any time.
The platform also has a beneficial effect on alert fatigue by fixing many of the ‘alert’ issues before they reach the security team. We prevent 90% of the alerts before they are born,” says Zamir. “We also group related alerts into one incident and suppress duplicates, so teams only see high-value events with clear context. We also reduce the alerts by understanding ‘what’s normal.’ Most alerts happen because security tools don’t know the finance team always downloads reports before board meetings, or that developers access certain databases during deployments. When you know what normal looks like, you only alert on genuinely unusual activity.”
The underlying purpose and function of the Ray Security platform is to combine visibility, understanding and reaction into a single real time automated mitigation, rather than the current reliance on scanning, anomaly detection, alerting the security team and waiting for triage and mitigation hours (if you’re lucky) later.
Ray Security, based in Tel Aviv, was founded by Ariel Zamir (CEO), Eric Wolf (CBO), and Dekel Levkovich (CTO) in September 2024. The seed funding will be used for product development and go-to-market expansion. It intends to increase its footprint in mid-size to large enterprises by targeting high-risk, data-intensive industries such as finance, healthcare and tech.
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