Automox, a startup that provides cloud-based patch management and endpoint protection solutions, has secured $2 million in an investment round led by venture capital firm Blue Note Ventures.
The company's technology focus is especially timely. Major hacks and breaches over the past year -- particularly the massive Equinix breach -- involved systems that weren't properly patched.
“Poor patch management and misconfigured endpoints represent 80 percent of a company’s attack surface, yet both are preventable,” said Jay Prassl, Automox founder and CEO, said in a prepared statement.
Amid that reality, Automox is attracting attention from some of the security industry's biggest executive names. Other investors to participate in the investment round included:
- Ron Gula, founder and former CEO of cyber exposure platform provider Tenable.
- Art Coviello, former executive chairman of advanced threat detection solutions firm RSA.
- Tim Belcher, former chief technology officer of RSA.
- Mike Viscuso, co-founder of endpoint security solutions provider Carbon Black.
- Roger Thornton, CTO of unified security management and threat intelligence solutions company AlienVault.
- Tom Noonan, founder and former CEO of Internet Security Systems.
With the investment funding, Automox will accelerate its product development, marketing and sales efforts and expand its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) program, according to a prepared statement.
Automox: Here's What You Need to Know
Automox provides cloud system management to automate the patching, configuration and maintenance of Windows, OS X and Linux systems from a single platform.
The Automox platform leverages a Dynamic Policy Engine that allows IT managers to customize and group policies and ensure that every system meets an organization's regulatory and security requirements, the company said. It also gives IT organizations immediate control and full visibility into the status of all of their managed systems.
Automox today offers the following solutions:
- Automation: Provides configurable patch automation, software deployment and workflow management.
- Control: Empowers organizations with complete control and active enforcement of system and software configurations.
- Visibility: Offers instant visibility into system inventory, vulnerability status and policy compliance.
Installation of the Automox agent involves a 30-second process and requires less than 10MB of space, according to the company. This agent sets a persistent encrypted session with the Automox cloud to monitor an organization's vulnerability level, provides an inventory of hardware, software, patches and configuration details and automatically patches vulnerabilities based on an organization's configured policies.
Automox's customer base of mid-market and enterprise customers grew tenfold in 2017, the company indicated. In addition, Automox customers include consumer brands like Dollar Shave Club, Hootsuite and Quicken, along with healthcare and technology providers such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, Dizzion and NTT Data Services.
