commonIT

The SANS Institute, internationally recognized for its leadership in information security training and certification, has just published a threat report under the title “The Top Cyber Security Risks“. It comes as no surprise to us at commonIT that the report clearly identifies web usage as the key vector for attacks, whether at the client side or on the server.

The report leads by identifying two priorities that need addressing: unpatched client-side software, and vulnerabilities in Internet-facing web sites. Based on data collected between March and August of this year, the authors show that application vulnerabilities now far exceed those being discovered in the operating system, commenting that “browsers and client-side applications that can be invoked by browsers seem to be consistently targeted”.

A well-developed tutorial included in the report describes one specific way in which the enterprise can expose itself to web-based penetration. But the report is full of interesting data, and merits the time to read it for any information security professional.

And so to Virtual Browser. If we find the report particularly interesting and relevant, it’s not just for the quality of the data. It’s also because our Virtual Browser technology successfully addresses and mitigates the situations described, something no other technology on the market today is capable of. By putting the browser in a datacenter-hosted virtual machine and isolating browsing sessions from each other, the enterprise is fully protected whether the client side or server side is compromised. Virtual Browser — the enterprise browser solution, Secure by Design.

Does what, exactly? Why, winning the Monaco Grand Prix, of course! When commonIT heads for Monaco next month we won’t be trying to emulate Formula 1 drivers (though some of the team regret this) — but we’re going there to win.

From October 7th to 10th around a thousand of the most senior CSOs representing practically every major enterprise, ministry and government and local authority agency in France will be in Monaco for the ninth annual “Assises de la sécurité” get-together. As one of the sponsors of the event commonIT will man a stand for the three days of conferences and workshops, and deliver a 40 minute workshop on virtualisation and browser security. Through a partnership with the French edition of Global Security Mag all delegates will also receive a copy of a new white paper on enterprise web security developped by commonIT — the English version will be available shortly, watch this blog!

The three days of close interaction with high-level contacts from every sector of the French economy are a once-a-year opportunity to reach key decision makers, to spread the Virtual Browser message, to listen to their needs, and to detect new business opportunities. That’s why we’re sending a team of three people; commonIT will represented by Daniel, Albino and myself. Just like Jenson Button, we’re going there to win. But we’ll be driving a little more slowly.

Last week Valérie Pecresse, Minister of Higher Education and Research in the French government, announced the winners of nationwide competition sponsored by her ministry to identify innovative enterprises and technologies. CommonIT figured among the 74 enterprises selected to benefit from government financial aid covering 60% of the costs of their innovation projects.

But while the financial aid is more than welcome, the competition also says a lot about the quality of winners’ business models. The competition is now in its 11th year, and 80% of previous winners were still in business five years after winning, an exceptionally high success rate.

For commonIT, being selected as one of the winners is a reward which recognizes both the technical innovation of the Virtual Browser solution and the quality of the management team. Two criteria essential to the continuing growth and success of commonIT.

Virtual Browser has started to get attention from IT press and we are proud to present you some articles talking about commonIT’s launch.

Among them, a long interview in Global Security Mag and some news on specialized French web sites like Security Vibes and Mag securs.

But this is just the beginning…

It’s my turn to tell you about David Dupré, finishing the round up of commonIT’s founders.

When I first met David in 2001, I was struck by his ability to see the big picture. David is a marketing natural and a born leader able to adapt, to anticipate, to innovate, capturing market tendancies.

 
David Dupré:

David started his career with Arkoon’s newly-created sales team in 2001 as a pre-sales consultant, after graduating from the INSA Lyon engineering school. A year later he left Arkoon to study marketing and business strategy at EMLyon Business School.  He returned to Arkoon as manager of Product Marketing, and was named Director of Marketing in 2006. He played a major role in a series of key developments which contributed to the growth of Arkoon - a successful M&A operation extending Arkoon’s product lines, channel development, IPO, European expansion.

I met Albino just as we were getting started with Arkoon adventure begun; a mutual friend introduced us to each other. I was quickly convinced that Albino had the capacity to develop Arkoon sales - starting from zero!

Albino Pili :

Albino’s Franco-Italian background has contributed to a succesful multifaceted sales career. A graduate in electrical engineering, Albino has held sales responsabilities in various large European IT services and distribution groups including Allium and InfoPoint. In 1997, he joined the sales team at ECS Group, the European leader in IT equipment leasing, and developed a contract portfolio worth €2.5M. In 2000, Albino joined us at Arkoon to start the sales activity. The strategic partnerships and key agreements he signed early on still contribute significantly to Arkoon’s revenues. Albino also started the European development of Arkoon in october 2004, when he was charged with developing new sales channels in Italy. In 2006, Albino joined Databail, a subsidiary of the C2A group, as sales manager. In early 2008, Albino left Databail to study strategic management (ICG) at Nanterre Paris X university. In the same period, we decided to start the commonIT project.

It’s my turn to tell you about Daniel, with whom I have worked for many years.

Daniel Fages:

Daniel, a graduate of the INSA engineering school in Lyon like myself and David, has worked in the information security field throughout his career. Technically speaking, we are complementary: Daniel is an inventor, designing and experimenting with innovative technical solutions while I transform his proof-of-concept into an industrial-level product. He is a visionary who knows how technologies will evolve and what should be done now.

Daniel started his career in 1997 at IBM as a consultant in the security and Internet fields, then in 1999 began working on an innovative application layer firewall with security and performance in mind. This led to him founding Arkoon Network Security and patenting the breakthrough FAST (Fast Applicative Shield Technology) technology which is still the core filtering engine of Arkoon’s FAST360 UTM appliances.

As a founder and CTO of Arkoon, he built up the R&D department and was a valued member of the executive committee. Daniel is one of the key people who has made a significant contribution to the success of Arkoon and its status as French leader in IT security solutions.

With a few more weeks to go before the official launch of commonIT, it’s time for us to introduce ourselves. Who are the founders of commonIT? There are four of us: Daniel Fages, Albino Pili, Mathieu Lafon and myself, David Dupre… But what is our background? And what brought us together?

My dear co-founders, I suggest a round-robin presentation: each of us will present one of our colleagues in turn. I’ll start with Mathieu, then it’s up to you…

Mathieu Lafon:

Mathieu is a graduate of the INSA engineering school in Lyon (a leading French engineering school) like myself and Daniel, and he started his career at Arkoon in 2000. If I had to present him in one sentence I would say he’s the kind of engineer able to develop in a day what most other engineers need a week to accomplish… and that would take me a year.

As lead developer, he participated in designing and developing FAST, the core technology of Arkoon’s UTM appliances. He’s recognized as co-inventor, with Daniel, of this technology, patented by Arkoon. In the Arkoon R&D labs, Mathieu launched and managed the security response team. I consider Mathieu to be one of the leading experts in IT security. His in-depth analysis of Internet threats during the last 5 years has contributed to uncovering many major vulnerabilities. Mathieu is also a contributor to the open source community.