ZeroFox explained

ZeroFox Holdings, Inc.
Type:Public company
Traded As:NASDAQ:
Isin:US98955G1031
Location:Baltimore, Maryland
Locations:3

ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. is an external cybersecurity company based in Baltimore, Maryland.[1] [2] It provides cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) for organizations to expose and disrupt phishing and fraud campaigns, botnet exposures, credential theft, impersonations, data breaches, and physical threats that target brands, domains, people, and assets.

History

ZeroFox was created in 2013 under the name Riskive, but changed to its current name months later. The company began as a startup in an 8,000 sq. ft. space inside Betamore - a startup incubator in Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood.

In 2015, ZeroFox raised $27 million in Series B funding. By 2016, the company had outgrown its space and moved to an 18,000 sq. ft. space inside a former Pabst Brewing facility in South Baltimore.[3] In 2017, ZeroFox raised $40 million in funding led by Redline Capital Management, a European venture firm, and Silver Lake Waterman, a fund that focuses on pre-IPO companies. Prior investors New Enterprise Associates, Highland Capital Partners and Core Capital also contributed. The investment helped bring ZeroFox's total funding to $88 million.[4]

ZeroFox partners with other software organizations such as IBM, Hootsuite, Splunk, ThreatQuotient, and others to visualize, analyze, and predict cyber security threats to respond quickly to reduce the impact of incidents.[5] ZeroFox partners with Google Cloud to warn users against phishing domains.[6]

In 2020, ZeroFox closed a new $74 million round of financing led by Intel Capital. This funding round was one of the largest a Maryland cyber firm has landed in recent years. This brings ZeroFox's backing to $162 million to date.[7]

The company went public on August 4, 2022 through a $1.4B SPAC deal. In the deal, ZeroFox also acquired ID Experts Holdings, Inc. (“IDX”). The combined company is now called ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. and trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “ZFOX” for its common stock and “ZFOXW” for its publicly traded warrants.[8] [9] [10]

Purchase

On February 6, 2024, ZeroFox announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Haveli Investments, a leading private equity firm focused on enterprise software and cybersecurity. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Haveli Investments will acquire ZeroFox in an all-cash transaction at an enterprise value of approximately $350 million.[11]

On May 13, 2024, it was announced that Haveli Investments had completed the purchase of ZeroFox Holdings.[12]

Acquisitions

Recognition

Controversies

Freddie Gray protest surveillance

The company faced criticism over its handling of the 2015 protests over the death of Freddie Gray when it singled out its nonviolent organizers. ZeroFox labeled DeRay McKesson and Johnetta Elzie as high physical threats to law enforcement despite not being suspected of any criminal activity.[30] [31] [32] ZeroFox was unsuccessful at differentiating between impersonating troll accounts and Elzie's actual social media presence.[33]

FBI contract and the January 6 Capitol Attack

ZeroFox signed a $14 million social media intelligence contract with the FBI on Dec 30, 2020, taking over from Dataminr, which held the contract until Dec. 31, 2020. This transition period led to decreased visibility leading up to the 2021 United States Capitol attack, and led agents to calling it an expletive sounding similar to ZeroFox.[34] [35] [36]

Notes and References

  1. News: Funding Daily: Very big private equity and very small microgadgets. Tweney. Dylan. April 30, 2014. May 1, 2014. Venture Beat.
  2. News: Capital Gains: Another $2 Billion Crosses Into Uber's Event Horizon, Peloton Raises Big Cash. Kulwin. Noah. Dec 8, 2015. Dec 6, 2015. ReCode.
  3. Web site: South Baltimore Business Roundup. Southbmore.com. 21 January 2016.
  4. Web site: South Baltimore Business Roundup. Southbmore.com. 19 July 2017.
  5. Web site: ZeroFox Global Partner Program. ZeroFox.com. 21 November 2021.
  6. Web site: Sharma . Shweta . 2023-04-11 . ZeroFox partners with Google Cloud to warn users against phishing domains . 2023-05-17 . CSO Online . en.
  7. Web site: Baltimore's ZeroFox raises one of Maryland's largest funding rounds for cyber firms. Bizjournals.com. 21 November 2021.
  8. Web site: Claman . Liz . ZeroFox proactively attacks cyber threats from 'Main Street to Mars': CEO . Fox Business. 4 August 2022 .
  9. Web site: ZeroFox goes public in a SPAC, completes acquisition of Portland's IDX . 4 August 2022 . Malia . Spencer . American City Business Journals.
  10. Web site: Zurier . Steve . IT security company ZeroFox goes public despite concerns over market conditions . SC Media. 4 August 2022 .
  11. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/02/06/2824352/0/en/ZeroFox-to-be-Acquired-by-Haveli.html
  12. Web site: Haveli Investments Completes Acquisition of ZeroFox. ZeroFox Holdings. 2024-05-13. 2024-05-29. en.
  13. Web site: Osborne. Charlie. ZeroFox acquires Cyveillance threat intelligence business from LookingGlass. 2020-10-07. ZDNet. en.
  14. Web site: ZeroFox acquires dark web threat intelligence company Vigilante. 2022-01-29. TechCrunch. en-US.
  15. Web site: ZeroFox Begins Trading on Nasdaq Under Symbol "ZFOX" . 2023-05-17 . ZeroFox . en-US.
  16. Web site: Cybersecurity company ZeroFox acquires IDX, merges with L&F to create $1.4 billion entity . 2023-05-17 . ZDNET . en.
  17. Web site: ZeroFox Completes Acquisition of LookingGlass . 2023-05-17 . ZeroFox . en-US.
  18. News: ZeroFox Named A Leader in Digital Risk Protection. 29 December 2023 . ZeroFox . 17 July 2018.
  19. News: ZeroFox Expands Threat Intelligence Capabilities with Exclusive Visibility into External Threats. 29 December 2023 . ZeroFox . 19 April 2022.
  20. News: Frost & Sullivan Recognizes ZeroFox with 2022 Global Competitive Strategy Leadership Award in Digital Risk Protection. 2 January 2023 . GlobeNewswire . 7 March 2023.
  21. Web site: Global INFOSEC Awards for 2023 Winners by Company. Cyber Defense Awards . 2 January 2024.
  22. News: Cyber Defense Magazine Announces Winners of the Global InfoSec Awards 2023. 2 January 2024 . CISION PRWeb . 24 April 2023.
  23. News: Introducing The Daily Record’s 2023 Cybersecurity Power List. 2 January 2024 . Maryland The Daily Record . 31 May 2023.
  24. News: ZeroFox Named Digital Risk Protection Leader by Quadrant Knowledge Solutions in 2023 SPARK Matrix™. 29 December 2023 . Yahoo!finance . 17 August 2023.
  25. News: ZeroFox Recognized as a Top Threat Intelligence Provider in Forrester Wave: External Threat Intelligence Services, Q3, 2023. 29 December 2023 . ZeroFox . 3 August 2023.
  26. Web site: The Cyber Top 20. 2 January 2024.
  27. News: ZeroFox Named to the Enterprise Security Tech 2023 Cyber Top 20 Awards List. 2 January 2024 . Yahoo!finance . 22 August 2023.
  28. Web site: 2023 Award Winners. Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards . 2 January 2024.
  29. News: ZeroFox Wins “Incident Response Solution of the Year” 2023 CyberSecurity Breakthrough Award. 2 January 2024 . GlobeNewswire . 16 October 2023.
  30. http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/cyberbizblog/2015/08/baltimores-zerofox-faces-backlash-over-riot-threat.html "Baltimore's ZeroFox faces backlash over riot threat report; CEO James Foster responds"
  31. News: Activist DeRay Mckesson's Social Media Has Been Monitored by Department of Homeland Security: Report. The Root. August 15, 2015. May 7, 2018.
  32. Web site: Black Lives Matter organizers were labeled as "threat actors" by a cybersecurity firm . Brandon E. Patterson . Mother Jones . 3 August 2015 . 26 October 2022 .
  33. Web site: Klippenstein . Ken . 2023-07-06 . FBI Hired Social Media Surveillance Firm That Labeled Black Lives Matter Organizers "Threat Actors" . 2023-07-06 . The Intercept . en-US.
  34. News: Davis. Aaron C.. 31 October 2021. Warnings of violence before Jan. 6 precipitated the Capitol riot. Washington Post. 31 October 2021. But the end-of-the-year changeover limited the FBI’s understanding of what was happening online at a key juncture, just as extremists were mobilizing. FBI agents started using an alternative service known as ZeroFox that was unfamiliar to many in the bureau. The change came as a surprise, causing confusion about how to use the new system. Some agents and analysts felt the new service was a significant downgrade, particularly when it came to tracking things on Twitter. Within the FBI, some frustrated agents quickly started using a derisive nickname for ZeroFox — replacing the “Fox” with a similar-sounding expletive, to indicate how little use it seemed to have.31“It wasn’t that we were blind, it just turned out to be a bad time to have less visibility into what was happening online, because we were changing systems and a lot of people didn’t really know the new system,” said one person familiar with the matter..
  35. Web site: Dilanian. Ken. 8 March 2021. Why did the FBI miss the threats about Jan. 6 on social media?. 1 November 2021. NBC News. Fact check: false. FBI agents have said in court records that they monitor public social media, and the bureau recently signed a $14 million contract with a "threat intelligence" company called ZeroFox "to proactively identify threats to the United States and its interests" on the internet. For years, the FBI has had a similar arrangement with DataMinr, which can flag social media postings of interest to its clients..
  36. Web site: FBI Social Media Alerting . Sam.gov.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "ZeroFox".

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