Vaulting To Info Safety

It was love that inspired Alon Cohen to start Cyber-Ark Software, but when it comes to the channel, this network security company is all business.

Cyber-Ark, based here, works with an ASP in Boston to serve small- and midsize-businesses, says Orit Rumstein, vice president of international marketing at Cyber-Ark. The company is also looking to sell its security software through solution providers by the first half of 2001. Currently, the company targets Fortune 500 companies with direct sales, she says.

Rumstein looks to solution providers to help seal up data.

But this upstart developer proves that good business ideas can come from the most unlikely situations. Back when Cohen was the chief administrator of the security and systems department at the central computing center in the Israeli Defense Forces, he innocently left a love letter to his girlfriend on his computer.

To his surprise, a close friend broke into his directory, found the letter and distributed it as a joke.

"I realized all of the education center in the army has a copy of [the love note]," says Cohen, now president of Cyber-Ark.

After the incident, Cohen concluded there was no way to protect the entire network and that the only way to protect information was to isolate specific data.

In 1999 he founded Cyber-Ark with the intent of creating a secure environment for sensitive information. "We create an ark for cyberspace," Cohen says.

Cyber-Ark created PrivateArk, a family of products currently available. PrivateArk technology secures specific data and stores it where a designated group of people can access it. The owner can store the information in a "vault," or store keys to the information.

PrivateArk security technology includes VPN, firewall, file access control, encryption and authen-tication.

It is a "Swiss Bank" approach to storing critical business documents, says Dennis Drogseth, director at analyst Enterprise Management Associates. The design appeals to both the enterprise and service providers, he says.

Deloitte and Touche is one customer already taking advantage of the product. The Israeli arm of the company uses PrivateArk to secure confidential data.

Cyber-Ark also develops products that complement PrivateArk for protecting e-commerce, databases and e-mails.

Cyber-Ark started with one developer and later recruited five more people as the nucleus of the development team. Right now its Israel-based R&D office employs 34 people and the Massachusetts office employs 12, Cohen says. The company plans to expand quickly and employ 70 people by this summer.