The Israeli start-up Zafran Security (Zafran), which developed a platform that neutralizes the risk of exploiting the weak points found in the organization, was revealed today for the first time and announces a total fundraising of more than 30 million dollars. The company plans to deepen the capabilities of the platform, expand its activities in the American market and double the number of employees in Israel and the United States.
The company’s CEO, Sanez Ishar, who was born in Tehran and immigrated to Israel in her youth, served for about 15 years in the elite units of the Intelligence Corps and was discharged with the rank of major, said: “Zaffran takes an innovative approach that removes the threat and neutralizes the attacker’s ability to exploit the weakness, through Mitigation and optimal utilization of existing security tools. The unique technology creates a ‘cyber dome’ for the organization that maximizes security at the same time as optimizing the various security tools.”
Zafaran was established in 2022 by Sanez Ishar (CEO) Ben Seri (CTO) and Shanir Havdala (CPO).
Sanez, who was born in Tehran and immigrated to Israel in her youth, served for about 15 years in the elite units of the intelligence corps and was discharged with the rank of major.
Sanz led cyber threat research and analysis groups at FireEye – Mandiant (acquired by Google) and took part in significant geopolitical investigations, including the investigation of the cyber attack on a central hospital in Israel, in which she collaborated with Shanir and Ben.
Shanir graduated from the “Talfiot” course of the Air Force and served for about a decade in Unit 8200, where he won the Israel Defense Award and the Chief of Staff’s Technology Badge and was discharged with the rank of major. Ben served in Unit 81, won the Israel Security Award and was the first employee of the Israeli unicorn Armis, where he served as VP Research. Zafaran currently employs about 40 people in Israel and the United States and provides services to a number of corporations, including Fortune 25 companies, in the fields of health, retail, manufacturing and industry, and more.
About 60% of security breaches happened during the “exploitation window”, the period of time between the detection of the weaknesses and the end of their treatment, according to Verizon. This is because the process of fixing the weakness is accompanied by many development, modeling and control efforts that require the shutdown of the system. It is a complex process that requires a lot of resources, with the average time to treat a weakness being measured in weeks or even years.
At the same time, the average time it takes for an attacker to use the weakness has decreased significantly with the use of innovative technologies, including artificial intelligence, when according to a report published by Rapid7, over half of the weaknesses revealed were exploited within seven days.
Zaffran’s platform is the first to address the security gap created by the “window of exploiting weaknesses”, when it works automatically. Zaffran connects to all the security tools available in the organization (weakness scanning tools, endpoint security tools, network, cloud, applications and data) and maps all weaknesses that have been found.
After an in-depth analysis based on the attacker’s method of operation, it points out the weak points in the company that are likely to be attacked and gradually neutralizes the risk. Zafaran’s platform uses the existing security tools in the organization and does not require the installation of additional agents (software agents), so it preserves the security of the organization. Zafaran knows how to map the lines of defense in the organization, synchronize the security platforms and performs configuration.
Compared to patching solutions that require a re-updation of the system and may lead to proactive shutdowns, Zafran operates in the production environment and does not disrupt the functional continuity of the organization. The platform significantly doubles the power of the organization’s employees and the existing security tools, when its implementation optimizes the control lever of the security force in the organization as well as the return on the investment in the existing security tools.
Senz Ishar, CEO of Zafaran: “The cyber industry is characterized by a constant race between attackers and security teams, which led to the formation of the “window of exploiting weaknesses”, where most attacks actually take place. The rate of formation of weaknesses in organizations is faster than their ability to deal with them, when organizations are sometimes forced to struggle with millions of weaknesses at the same time.”
“Zaffran takes an innovative approach that removes the threat and neutralizes the attacker’s ability to exploit the weakness, through mitigation and optimal utilization of the existing security tools. The unique technology creates a ‘cyber dome’ for the organization that maximizes security at the same time as optimizing the various security tools.”
Doug Leona, managing partner at Sequoia Capital: “Zaffran focuses on a critical pain in the cyber market that has not received the attention it deserves from the various security solutions in the industry, because these do not take into account the security tools that exist in the organization and the mitigation capabilities. We are happy to accompany Zaffran at this stage The next of its growth journey, with a breakthrough platform that actively reduces risk exposure and on a significant scale – with the aim of redefining the standards in the global cyber industry.”
Lior Simon, a partner in the Cyberstarts Foundation: “Senz, Ben and Schnir combine extraordinary experience on both sides of the cyber-attack barrier – as those who served in offensive cyber roles and also led complex cyber investigations of significant attacks around the world.”
“The team’s ambitious vision allowed them to develop the world’s first mitigation platform that focuses on the time period in which hackers exploit existing security weaknesses, and enables organizations to bridge security gaps beyond traditional patching solutions. We are proud to accompany Zafaran from the day it was founded and I look forward to the continuation of the joint journey that will change the face of the industry “.
