The Cybersecurity Innovators to Watch: Founders Redefining Digital defense
The cybersecurity landscape is in constant flux, demanding innovative solutions to address increasingly refined threats. Beyond the established players, a new generation of founders is emerging, challenging conventional approaches and building companies poised to reshape the future of digital defense. This article profiles five such leaders – Karthik Krishnan (Concentric AI), Itzik Alvas (Entro Security), Lior Div (7AI), Feross Aboukhadijeh (socket), and David Primor (Cynomi) – whose vision, experience, and technological prowess are driving critical advancements in the field. We’ll explore their backgrounds, the problems their companies are solving, and why they’re ones to watch for investors, CISOs, and security professionals alike.
Understanding the Evolving Threat Landscape
Before diving into the individual profiles, it’s crucial to understand the forces driving innovation in cybersecurity. Organizations are grappling with an explosion of data, much of it unstructured and residing outside conventional security perimeters.The rise of cloud computing, coupled with increasingly complex software supply chains, has expanded the attack surface exponentially. Furthermore, the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals necessitates automation and scalable solutions. These founders are directly addressing these challenges with groundbreaking technologies.
Karthik Krishnan: Securing the Unstructured world with Concentric AI
Karthik Krishnan, Founder and CEO of Concentric AI, isn’t just building a security company; he’s tackling a basic vulnerability in modern data management. With over two decades of experience in the security industry, Krishnan recognized that 80% of an organization’s data lives outside the structured control planes traditionally protected by security tools. This “unstructured data” – documents, images, videos, emails - is a goldmine for attackers.
Concentric AI leverages the power of deep learning and semantic analysis to understand the content of this data,identifying risks that signature-based systems miss. This approach allows organizations to proactively detect and mitigate threats hidden within their most valuable assets. The company’s extraordinary growth – tripling its customer base in 2024, managing hundreds of petabytes of data, and achieving 300% year-over-year revenue growth – is a testament to the effectiveness of its solution and the critical need it addresses. Krishnan’s blend of strategic vision and operational expertise positions Concentric AI as a leader in data-centric security.
Key Takeaway: Concentric AI is pioneering a new era of security focused on understanding and protecting the vast quantities of unstructured data that power modern businesses.
Itzik Alvas: Solving the “Non-Human Identity” Crisis with Entro Security
Itzik Alvas, co-founder of Entro Security, brings a deeply personal understanding of the challenges surrounding identity security. His experience as CISO at an Israeli healthcare firm and security leader at Microsoft revealed a critical blind spot: the mismanagement of “non-human identities” – the service accounts, API keys, and other credentials that power modern applications.These often-overlooked identities are prime targets for attackers.
Entro Security offers a holistic secrets security platform that addresses the entire lifecycle of credentials, from revelation to control and policy enforcement. The company’s success – raising over $24 million in funding, including an $18 million Series A led by Dell technologies Capital, and securing clients like Booking, Kayak, and SolarWinds – demonstrates the market’s urgent need for a comprehensive solution to this pervasive problem. Alvas’s background and Entro’s focus on a critical, often-ignored aspect of security make it a company to watch.
Key Takeaway: Entro Security is tackling the often-overlooked but critical issue of non-human identity security, providing a platform to manage and protect the credentials that underpin modern applications.
Lior Div: AI-Native Cybersecurity with 7AI
Lior Div, CEO and co-founder of 7AI, is a veteran of the cybersecurity trenches. having previously co-founded Cybereason, he understands the limitations of traditional security approaches in the face of increasingly sophisticated attacks. Div is now focused on harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence to build a new generation of AI-native cybersecurity companies.
7AI is at the forefront of this movement, developing solutions that leverage AI to proactively detect and respond to threats. Div’s unique background – including a Medal of Honor for his service as a commander of an elite cyber unit – provides him with unmatched expertise in forensics, hacking, and reverse engineering. His leadership positions him as a leading voice on the future of
