FinancialBuzz.com News Commentary
NEW YORK, Dec. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Nowadays, an extensive layer of cybersafety is often required for business infrastructure or government agencies in order to protect sensitive information and consumer data. In fact, the global cyber security market size overall was valued at USD 156.5 Billion in 2019 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.0% from 2020 to 2027, according to data by Grand View Research. Currently, though, the latest Russian hack, which is being called the largest act of espionage in U.S. history, is being analyzed by experts and cybersecurity firms to determine the magnitude of the threat. According to a report by the Associated Press, the hack compromised federal agencies and “critical infrastructure” in a sophisticated attack that was hard to detect and will be difficult to undo, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in an unusual warning message. The nation’s cybersecurity agency also warned of a “grave” risk to government and private networks. Plurilock Security Inc. (TSX-V: PLUR) (OTC: PLCKF), Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS), CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYBR), Absolute Software Corporation (NASDAQ: ABST), Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT)
Several tech companies, including Microsoft, have also commented on the hack, with the technology conglomerate explaining in a blogpost that “it’s critical that we step back and assess the significance of these attacks in their full context. This is not ‘espionage as usual,’ even in the digital age. Instead, it represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world. In effect, this is not just an attack on specific targets, but on the trust and reliability of the world’s critical infrastructure in order to advance one nation’s intelligence agency.”
Plurilock Security Inc. (TSX-V: PLUR) (OTC: PLCKF) announced earlier this month that the company provided, “frictionless and continuous authentication using machine learning and behavioral biometrics, is pleased to provide the following corporate update for the fourth quarter of 2020.
Industry Outlook
Cybersecurity is a crucial element for organizations with deep security needs such as healthcare and financial services companies. Given the nature of recent cyberattacks that target these organizations, the need for advanced cybersecurity solutions will increase and according to Cyber Security Ventures, Global Cybersecurity spending is predicted to exceed $1 Trillion USD from 2017-2021.
In preparation for the anticipated growth in the cybersecurity sector, Plurilock has made some key developments since going public this year to address and capitalize on this global opportunity.
Key Developments
Public Listing
On September 24th, 2020, the Company began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker PLUR after completing a qualifying transaction (“QT”) with Libby K Industries, Inc. on September 17, 2020. Plurilock also completed a concurrent financing with the QT, which saw the Company successfully raise $2.6 million. The concurrent financing was led by PI Financial and included Industrial Alliance Securities.
Expert Advisory Board and Advisors
The Company assembled an Advisory Board consisting of technology sector experts to provide guidance to Plurilock on planning and executing strategic initiatives while accelerating the growth of the Company. Members of the Advisory Board include Dr. Issa Traoré, Ph.D., Merv Chia and Mark Orsmond.
Additionally, the Company appointed two veteran multinational security leaders, Gaétan Houle and Chris Pierce as advisors to the Company. Mr. Houle has held various security leadership roles in reputable government agencies such as the Canadian Federal Government, Department of National Defence and the former Department of Foreign Affairs, now known as Global Affairs Canada. Mr. Pierce is an accomplished executive and consultant who oversaw the international division of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation and led the development of Booz Allen’s international business strategy.
Partnerships and Relationships
- A new product collaboration with identity and access management (“IAM”) provider Gluu, including the inclusion of native Plurilock support in standard Gluu releases going forward.
- The services of Government Sales Specialists, LLC, an outsourced federal sales agency, were retained by the Company to grow its pipeline of government sales.
- Completion of the first milestone of a US$198,000 contract with the US Department of Homeland Security, for which the Company received US$70,000.
- A major US financial services firm awarded a US$42,000 annual recurring contract to Plurilock to deploy the Company’s core authentication solutions.
Certification and Compliance Program –
The Company launched its new certification and compliance program in November 2020, engaging highly regarded automated security and compliance firm Vanta Inc. to provide advisory services in pursuit of System and Organization Controls 2 (“SOC2”) standard compliance.
Core Product Initiatives and Updates
The Company engaged in and launched a number of product-related items and initiatives, including:
- The launch of Plurilock’s new mobile applications for iOS and Android, now available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, respectively.
- Release of a new version of Plurilock’s core ADAPT and DEFEND software platform adding support for enterprise-environment proxy services, new versions for Mac OS, and enhanced server reliability.
- The launch of a re-engineered customer service and support experience to optimize issue mean-time-to-resolution (“MTTR”) and accelerate client assistance availability.
2021 Outlook – During 2021, the Company plans to continue focusing on a number of initiatives to drive its growth strategy including:
- Strategic M&A activity with a focus on profitable organizations with which the Company can cross-sell existing high margin Plurilock products
- Organic sales growth through established channel partners and a direct sales force
- Further investment in the company’s MFA authentication technology and IP portfolio
- Additional platform integrations that can expand sales
- Investor awareness initiatives
“2020 was an exciting year for the team at Plurilock as we completed a number of milestones, including a successful public listing on the TSXV in September,” said Ian Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “Despite the headwinds of the pandemic, we have seen an increase in enterprise customers looking to secure their infrastructure from cyber threats. Given the growth outlook of the sector, we believe in 2021 the team we have assembled will enable us to grow organically through direct sales to enterprise customers while we seek to strategically deploy resources through acquisitions.”
About Plurilock – Plurilock is an innovative, identity-centric cybersecurity company that reduces or eliminates the need for passwords, extra authentication steps, and cumbersome authentication devices. Plurilock’s software leverages state-of-the-art behavioral-biometric, environmental, and contextual technologies to provide invisible, adaptive, and risk-based authentication solutions with the lowest possible cost and complexity. Plurilock enables organizations to compute safely-and with peace of mind.
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Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS) reported last week its research team, using the Qualys Cloud Platform, has identified 7.54 million vulnerabilities related to FireEye Red Team assessment tools and compromised versions of SolarWinds Orion, tracked as Solorigate or SUNBURST, across its 15,700-member customer base. Of the vulnerabilities identified, researchers noted that across 5.29 million unique assets most are related to the FireEye Red Team tools. These findings highlight the scope of the potential attack surface if these tools are misused. The research team further identified that 99.84% of the 7+ million vulnerability instances are from eight vulnerabilities in Microsoft software that have patches available.
CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYBR) reported last month that it is working with Forescout and Phosphorus to enable organizations to secure the increasing number of IoT devices and technologies resulting from digital business transformation. Customers can significantly reduce risk using the joint integration to continuously discover, secure and manage IoT devices connected to corporate networks. CyberArk holds the most comprehensive set of privileged access management-related certifications and achievements for the government sector, including international Common Criteria certification by the National Information Association Partnership (NIAP). CyberArk is also included on the U.S. Department of Defense Information Network Approved Products List (DoDIN APL) and the U.S. Army Certificate of Networthiness (CoN) under the Cybersecurity Tools (CST) device type (Tracking Number (TN) 1712401). The CyberArk Privileged Account Security Solution has been independently validated and awarded an Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 2+ under the Common Criteria Recognition Agreement (CCRA). CyberArk helps federal agencies meet compliance requirements including FISMA/NIST SP 800-53, Phase 2 of the Department of Homeland Security Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, NERC-CIP, HSPD-12 and more.
Absolute Software Corporation (NASDAQ: ABST) announced last month new capabilities that provide IT and Security teams with advanced insights into software and web usage across their distributed endpoint device fleets. With absolute’s new Software Inventory and Web Usage analytics, organizations can maximize returns on software investments and find potential cost savings; help ensure employees have the tools they need to work productively and securely from anywhere; and identify potential security vulnerabilities or blind spots arising from unsanctioned, insecure apps or web content. “With devices staying largely off-network in the new world of remote and hybrid work models, IT departments face multiple challenges when it comes to having a complete picture of what software has been purchased and deployed, whether the apps being used are sanctioned or fully updated, and where they may have gaps in security or productivity,” said Ameer Karim, EVP of Product Management at Absolute.
Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) announced earlier this month new integrations with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to further provide customers with advanced security across their cloud platforms, applications, and network. Fortinet’s cloud security solutions – including its virtual next-generation firewall, FortiGate VM and web application firewall (WAF), FortiWeb – are designed to protect workloads and business applications across on-premises data centers and cloud environments. Fortinet is continuing to provide a broad set of natively integrated security solutions using AWS to provide customers with full visibility and control of applications and centralized management across cloud and hybrid environments. Fortinet Managed IPS Rules Powered by FortiGuard Labs: Fortinet provides managed IPS rulesets powered by threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs for the recently introduced AWS Network Firewall. This is a new managed service that makes it easy to deploy essential network protections for all of a customer’s Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (Amazon VPCs).
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