Check Point buys Israeli startup to provide safer remote access amid COVID-19
Market source estimates the acquisition of Tel Aviv-based Odo Security at $30 million; founded in 2018, startup has raised $5 million to date
Cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. said Wednesday it has acquired Israeli startup Odo Security, a developer of a new, cloud-based technology that allows secure remote access.
The Israeli cybersecurity giant did not reveal the scope of the deal, but a market source put it at around $30 million.
The technology will integrate with Check Point’s threat prevention software capabilities to better address the growing needs that enterprises have to enable employees to have secure remote access to essential data from any application, the firm said in a statement.
The coronavirus pandemic has driven enterprise adoption of mass remote working for global workforces, from 30% before the pandemic to 81% today. Seventy-four percent plan to enable large-scale remote working permanently. However, many organizations overlooked critical aspects of security in the race to enable remote working, which significantly increased their exposure to cyber-attacks, Check Point said in a statement. Now, more than ever, organizations need to secure remote connectivity anytime, anywhere to any resource, the statement said.
“Many organizations find themselves compromising security in order to deliver the connectivity required by their business needs,” Dorit Dor, Check Point’s VP Products. “By incorporating Odo Security’s unique clientless, cloud-delivered secure remote access to our portfolio of threat prevention services, we help organizations overcome this dilemma.”
Unlike traditional secure remote access solutions, Odo’s technology enables users to easily connect through a unified portal to a wide range of applications, such as remote desktops, web applications, database servers, cloud and corporate servers, with no client or software installation, the statement said; it allows security administrators to easily deploy the solution in less than five minutes from the cloud. And it enables firms to define whom to give access to, and define the right people in the right context, to reduce the possibilities of attack.
Check Point will integrate Odo Security’s technology into its Infinity software, the company said in a statement, and will incorporate within the firm all of the 17 employees of Odo.
Odo was founded in 2018 by Or Zilberman, Gilad Steinberg and Noa Shafir and has raised to date $5 million, according to the database of Start-Up Nation Central.
