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Extenua |  |
In The Boardroom™ With...
Mr. Steve Visconti
President & CEO
Extenua
Extenua Inc. is an award-winning developer of enterprise security software that simplifies and secures cloud storage technologies in revolutionary ways.Extenua’ s customers include Fortune 500 companies IBM, Fujitsu, Boeing, Nokia, Sony, Toyota, Kaiser Permanente, US Bank and Motorola as well as government institutions, security agencies, and thousands of small and mid-size businesses. Additional information about Extenua and Cloud2Drive is available at www.extenua.com. Extenua Inc. is a privately-held corporation based in San Jose, California.
Updated March 27, 2018
Extenua CEO, Steve Visconti, told us, “The recent ransomware attack on the city of Atlanta is an ominous development. 2018 looks like it is, unfortunately, going to be THE year of ransomware.”
“The blockchain world is also coming to grips with a shocking revelation that could potentially threaten the very existence of the world's foremost cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Researchers from Germany's RWTH Aachen University analyzed the blockchain to examine how much "arbitrary data" it contained and discovered a vast trove of data which is irrevocably tainted with unremovable links to illegal child pornography. This discovery hypothetically makes Bitcoin ownership illegal in almost every country that has laws against the possession and distribution of images of child abuse, 112 countries, as this tainted content inevitably is distributed among and by all users of the currency.
What is the solution?
“First, let’s recognize that blockchain, and all online transactions, are only as strong as its weakest link - the endpoint. Yes, where humans meet machine. There are several known vulnerabilities including obtaining personal PKI key, integration of blockchain into applications, fraud by groups of participants, scale has not been tested or peer reviewed. When used for crypto-currency such as Bitcoin, the problem extends to the digital wallets. The digital wallets are vulnerable to ransomware just like any other file on your device. We have seen countless ransomware attacks that locked up the end-users wallet. “
“Cloud2Drive configured with our SilverSHield product can protect against ransomware and here is how:
Configure Cloud2Drive with our SilverSHield SFTP product in any and all servers and desktops that are critical (we will show you how to configure these machines). All files using Cloud2Drive, including the hard drive if configured properly are transported to virtual drive to the cloud via SilverSHielD SFTP using SSH protocol. SSH and SFTP are impervious to ransomware. There are no known ways to attack or insert ransomware. This does not mean the enterprise will not get attacked, it means that if they are attacked AND if the user clicks on the link or opens an infected file, ALL data can be restored from backup images without paying the ransomware! You simply restore the infected servers and machines to the last known point prior to the attack.
See: https://www.extenua.com/news/cloud2drive-and-silvershield-impervious-to-ransomware
Cloud2Drive provides a commonsense approach to securing your data. Our highly encrypted and obfuscation design removes the common attack surfaces. Cloud2Drive never stores encryption keys anywhere. If no key exist then it can't be stolen. Our unique patented approach to key generation in real-time only for the instance to encrypt and decrypt provides a true secure dynamic stateless key system. Couple this with SilverSHielD SFTP and SSH for backup, you now have a system which is impervious to ransomware and malware."
Mr. Visconti added, “Extenua’s customers include Fortune 500 companies IBM, Fujitsu, Boeing, Nokia, Sony, Toyota, Kaiser Permanente, US Bank and Motorola as well as government institutions, security agencies, and thousands of small and mid-size businesses.”
About Extenua
Extenua Inc. is an award-winning developer of enterprise security software that simplifies and secures cloud storage technologies in revolutionary ways. Additional information about Extenua and Cloud2Drive is available at www.Extenua.com. Extenua Inc. is a privately-held corporation based in San Jose, California.
Contact: Public Relations & Marketing
Email: Press@Extenua.com or Info@Extenua.comUpdated February 13, 2018
“Extenua Inc., a pioneering developer of the world’s most advanced methods of cybersecurity software purpose built for today’s hostile environments, announced the release of a new product feature of Cloud2Drive™ (“C2D”), the Company’s premier cloud storage security solution.
The new component of Cloud2Drive is a browser-based client portal that allows for access to virtual drives and files via a web interface as opposed to the traditional C2D agent software, with access controlled by a systems administrator. Originally inspired following a request to meet the requirements of a U.S. government agency, the new feature is available to any subscriber to C2D who doesn’t require the full range of functions allowed by the downloadable client software.
“The Cloud2Drive web portal is ideal for anyone who is interested in the revolutionary end-to-end cloud security provided by C2D, without requiring a full download of the C2D software,” said Extenua CTO Federico Simonetti. “This new feature is just one more way that Extenua is striving to create innovative and practical solutions for cloud security issues, while at the same time producing products that satisfy the demands of the market and our customers.”
Updated December 11, 2017
Extenua Founder/CTO, Federico Simonetti, and CEO, Steve Visconti, Discuss
“End-to-End Storage Security” Automated Dynamic Encryption Key Management System
No Key Stored Anywhere - Defeating Common Cyber-Attacks
Extenua Inc., a pioneering developer of the world’s most advanced methods of cybersecurity software purpose built for today’s hostile environments, announces its revolutionary End-to-End Storage Security (ETESS) providing automated dynamic and stateless encryption key management in response to the critical industry needs which are facing ever increasing massive and destructive cyber-attacks. With ETESS Dynamic Key management encryption keys are generated in RAM at the precise moment they are needed and only remain there until the data is encrypted or decrypted. The key is then wiped clean from RAM with a DoD secure erasure algorithm. No key is ever stored anywhere which is instrumental in defeating many of the common cybersecurity vulnerabilities known to exist with traditional static key management systems. Extenua’ s ETESS takes security to an additional level by slicing data in to smaller fragments, stripping it of all metadata and encrypting each chunk of data with a unique encryption key. These encrypted chunks of data are then scattered around in random directories that reside in many locations to ensure against even brute force attacks, government snooping or FISA warrants served to your cloud service provider.
ETESS is a product feature built into Extenua’ s Cloud2Drive™ and SaferNAS™ products. Extenua’s products are software-only solutions that present cloud object storage as virtual network drives on Windows operating system, Windows Server with network attached storage or as folders with Android or iOS devices. You now have unlimited amounts of secure storage available on demand and you may utilize any cloud vendors’ object-based storage such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure Blob storage, IBM Cloud object storage or any OpenStack standard cloud object-based storage. More information may be found on our website at: https://www.extenua.com/cloud2drive/
Cloud2Drive ETESS and SaferNAS enable unlimited scalability of cloud object-based storage on-demand for today’s hybrid cloud architectures. Further, there is no complexity or single point of failure – no VPNs, no gateways, no proxy, no-bottlenecks.
“There is no safer way to secure unstructured data than with ETESS” said Federico Simonetti, Founder and CTO of Extenua, “We started with a clean slate approach to solve this enormous problem of Big Data’s need for a new approach to encryption and key management. What we designed is the most secure method to utilize encryption known today and is the easiest key management system to deploy and manage because it is fully automated and dynamic.”
“Enterprises large and small face security challenges in taking advantage of the productivity and economics of cloud storage. Extenua Cloud2Drive and SaferNAS with ETESS makes shared cloud storage secure, easy-to-access and simple to deploy with either new or existing cloud storage deployments and providers” said Steve Visconti, Extenua Chief Executive Officer “Applying superior encryption methods with a fully automated dynamic encryption key management platform is truly a game changing technology which is very much needed in today’s hostile environment. The enterprise require superior protection with less complexity in order to avoid the many well publicized attacks recently reported by Equifax, Yahoo, Uber and many more”.
For more information: www.Extenua.com, Public Relations & Marketing, Press@Extenua.com, +1 (408) 300-5779, info@extenua.com
Updated November 15, 2017
Steve Visconti, President and CEO, Extenua, told us, “A number of Fortune 500 companies have already started to leverage the advantages of Extenua’s dynamic product suite: IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Motorola, Shell, True Value...even the NCAA, just to name a few. Extenua’s award winning SilverSHielD SFTP for Windows is now available as an AMI service on Amazon AWS Marketplace. Use the industry’s most awarded SFTP SSH software to securely and safely transfer your data to your Amazon cloud service.
Let us tell you how we can help mitigate Equifax type breaches and address all of your cybersecurity concerns with ourcutting-edge solutions. More details here: www.extenua.com/silver-shield-saas/ Please visit us at www.extenua.com
Updated June 21, 2017
Updated May 22, 2017
Steve Visconti, President and CEO, said, “Last week there was a global ransomware cyberattack as never been seen before. This single attack affected more than 200,000 computers and wreaked havoc on financial institutions, healthcare organizations and transportation to name just a few. To put the problem in perspective in 2015 the industry saw nearly 3.8 million ransomware attacks which 2016 saw approximately 638 million attacks. 2017 is expected to see a triple digit rise over last year. Additionally, ransomware continues to morph. It is estimated there are over 32,000 variants currently. This is costing businesses billions of dollars and will likely cost lives if the industry does not take active steps to minimize its impact. This is a very serious problem which is why we developed a solution to protect your data in a way which is impervious to current iterations of ransomware.”
Updated May 16, 2017
Extenua has just released a most timely white paper…
This free white paper discusses the challenges of keeping ransomware (Cryptolocker, WannaCry, and the like) out of the corporate data storage, whether it is local, in the cloud or hybrid.
CLOUD2DRIVE-PROTECTED ONLINE STORAGE IS IMPERVIOUS TO RANSOMWARE
BY USING SILVERSHIELD
“Ransomware is a type of malware that restricts access to the infected computer system, and demands that the user pay a ransom to the malware operators to remove the restriction. Probably the most famous ransomware, even though not the only one, is Cryptolocker, and it’s certainly something you don’t want to deal with. Regardless of the strenuous efforts put in place by Antivirus developers, the rate of infection is astonishing, and these days it’s becoming even worse with an unprecedented outbreak of infection. To make things even worse, ransomware can also access all the shared folders on your NAS/SAN, so if you backup to a network drive your backups will be compromised too. The ransomware goals include, in fact, preventing you from being able to restore your old (healthy) data from a backup.”
“Even in case your systems are infected by a ransomware,
you will simply be able to format your computer,
reinstall your operating system,
and restore all your data from an always-healthy backup.”
Download the complete White Paper (in PDF format)
Updated April 2017 - Extenua White Paper
New Vulnerabilities in an Untrusted World
Maintaining Control of Your Data
Overview
Cloud based enterprise application are making remarkable inroads as an alternative to on-premise based solutions. Microsoft Office 365 and Google Docs are predominant in the market as the preferred office applications for the enterprise. The adoption of Microsoft Office 365 is outpacing analysts’ expectations due in part to Microsoft’s change in strategy dropping support for the traditional licensed client software while moving to Software as a Service. The value proposition to the enterprise is hard to resist when you consider document excellent collaboration tools, hosted Exchange, hosted SharePoint and of course the dominant applications of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
The adoption to Office 365 means the enterprise CISO and Network Administrators must rethink their security and privacy strategies as well as potential new vulnerabilities as they move to hosting their enterprise data on Microsoft One Drive. Your data security policies and security systems procedures must be rethought and reengineered. Encryption policy and implementation strategies will require careful consideration and planning. With the adoption of products like Office 365 and Google Docs brings new challenges to protecting your data outside of the domain of your corporate firewalls and security schemas. One must realize and give careful consideration to the threats such as loss of control of your encryption keys, additional vulnerabilities with cloud adoption and a number of other potential threats. You must now be aware of several new vulnerabilities and have a plan to deal with the new risks your organizations face. There are any number of new threats such as man-in-the-cloud attack, SAML vulnerabilities, Cross Site Scripting, stolen cookies, FISA warrants, government snooping programs, bad actors managing your data, as well as a broader surface of attack for hackers. These are serious issues and deserve serious consideration. For the complete White Paper, please click here.
Updated March 1, 2017
Extenua has released a new product under the SilverSHielD SFTP for Windows server.
It is called SilverSHielD – G with DoD 5220.22-M data wipe feature.
Pricing is $3995.00 per server. SilverSHielD – G has all the features of SilverSHielD SFTP for Windows with the added security of a secure erasure of all data in the repository on command.
This can be used for the government or enterprise that does not want any residual data left on their storage drives.
Updated November 10, 2016
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you for joining us again today, Steve. May we have an update regarding the Extenua and ImageWare relationship ?
"Last July we announced a strategic relationship with ImageWare in which Extenua would integrate the ImageWare’s GoverifyID biometric user authentication. We saw the need to strengthen user authentication vulnerabilities which continue to plague the enterprise. Cloud2Drive meets and even exceeds the challenges of securing data in flight and data at rest in today’s environment. We felt it important to add the best in class GoVerifyID biometric authentication to fulfill a true end-to-end mobile and stationary data access platform.
Extenua has made great inroads into large enterprise and government opportunities. The significance of an end-to-end security solution cannot be understated in this hostile and turbulent world of attacks – both from abroad and the occasional bad actors within. The size and magnitude of the opportunities are compelling as the markets are beginning to spend more resources on security. We are engaged in multiple opportunities which run into the 10’s of thousands of users. With each opportunity, it is a good feeling to know that ImageWare has solved the third factor authentication with GoVerifyID giving Extenua a competitive weapon unmatched in the market.
Extenua recently announced a new product called Extenua SAFE AI which secures data behind web servers. This is a game changer for SaaS vendors, users of Office 365 Enterprise as well as small and large web server farms that require security. In those environments, the users connect to the servers with a secure browser with HTTPS. On the back end storage Extenua SAFE AI chops the data into small chunks and encrypts each chunk of data with a unique encryption key that is generated in RAM only for the moment of encryption and decryption of those data chunks. They key is then wiped from memory so there is no key to be found in the event of an intruder. All of the encrypted data chunks are then scattered about in random encrypted directories with all metadata encrypted and obfuscated as well. This presents an impossible environment for hackers or bad actors. We know from our experience and news reports, the weak link will be the user’s authentication. Extenua is pleased to work in partnership with ImageWare in making GoVerifyID available to enhance the security for the secure browser users. They will then have a true end-to-end secure environment."
Jim Miller, Chairman and CEO, ImageWare Systems, OTCQB : IWSY, added, “Data breaches averaged $4 million per incident last year and C level executives are in the crosshairs for failing to adequately secure valuable network endpoints and data. Sadly, the damage caused to brand intellectual property and other enterprise assets is increasing and the attendant loss of reputation is an incalculable cost. Extenua’s Cloud 2 Drive and their new Extenua Safe AI offer the enterprise exceptional and unparalleled data security to combat this growing threat. ImageWare's GoVerify ID for Enterprise use teams up with Extenua to provide the missing third factor of identity in place of the obsolete, easy to compromise password - easy biometric authentication showing who you really are!
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Steve Visconti is responsible for Extenua’s strategic direction and day-to-day business operations. As CEO, Mr. Visconti brings to Extenua over 25 years’ experience in both domestic and international business development, sales, marketing, and management success. Steve’s leadership experience includes top technology companies and startup ventures including Cisco Systems, Inc., Airespace, Ascend, Chipcom, and Banyan Systems. His understanding of technology and market conditions, together with the ability to lead high growth companies and build shareholder value, has contributed to his proven performance record and several successful startup successes.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you for joining us today, Steve, at this very exciting time in the growth of Extenua. Before discussing today’s cybersecurity threat environment and Extenua solutions in greater detail, please tell us about your background.
Steve Visconti: I would characterize myself as a serial entrepreneur. There are five qualities that have led to my success, they are character, integrity, strategic thinker, decisive and energetic. In the early 80’s it became obvious to me that I like to build businesses particularly when it involves new ideas and breakthrough technologies. I have been fortunate to have had several great outcomes with startup companies.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: One will read on Extenua.com that, “Cloud2Drive is the most secure cloud access software. Cloud2Drive delivers complete security, compliance (PCI & HIPAA), and unlimited access.” And, that it would take it would take 25 eons to break Cloud2Drive’s data encryption. Please walk us through the major features and benefits.
Steve Visconti: Cloud2Drive has been developed to solve a number of problems that previously presented a problem to the enterprise in fully utilizing cloud object storage. We first observed cloud services were growing exponentially particularly Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service although for some reason cloud object based storage lagged far behind the growth curve. What we found was a complex problem set in that cloud storage security was not trusted, it was difficult to connect to, not suitable for use as primary storage and it suffered from frustrating outages. Cloud2Drive was designed to solve this complex problem set. The results are transforming how the enterprise not only utilizes the financial utility of cloud storage but doing it in a way which allows their business to flourish in this highly mobile society.
Extenua’s Cloud2Drive provides a rich set of features unmatched by industry competitors thus creating genuine breakthrough technology. There are six features wrapped into this easy to deploy and use software platform:
1.Cloud2Drive by far is the most secure platform for unstructured data storage both on-premise and cloud object storage. Not only is it secure end-to-end, it eliminates the need for cumbersome and slow VPN connections and eliminates the need for AES encryption key management platforms.
2. Mobility in this BYOD environment is easy and secure. Users can access their data from anywhere securely as long as there is an internet connection.
3. Data migration real-time in the background with no service interruption is key to any successful cloud storage deployment. Cloud2Drive provides automatic in the background data migration whether it is on-premise to cloud or cloud to cloud. This feature is also used for high availability with RAID like features.
4. Collaboration with network administrator governance. Protecting the company data assets should never be left to an individual user. Cloud2Drive is under the control of the network administrator and to make it easy there is an option for Active Directory control with single sign on.
5. Artificial Intelligence cache at the device and user level provides offline file access with 99.998% accuracy. This ensures access to files even when you are out of the reach of the network.
6. Wipe Clean in the case of lost devices through x509 certificate revocation field extensions which will implement a full US Department of Defense 5220.22-M Data Wipe Method.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: We have heard positive remarks about your SilverSHield product, “a secure fast and easy to use Microsoft Windows™ SSH & SFTP server” and SilverSHielDSaaS. Can you tell me more about SilverSHielD?
Steve Visconti: SilverSHielD is the gold standard in SSH File Transfer for Windows Server. It has won over 45 industry awards with over 3000 well-known companies using the product to date. SilverSHielD is not only the most secure SFTP product, it also incorporates many rich features such as one button configuration for Cisco Unified Communication server backup, a number of available scripts for tasks such as e-mail upon completion, pager notification and many others. It also offers support for several scripting languages so the network administrator can create his own set of rules based on specific events.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Yahoo, DropBox, LinkedIn…the daily headlines unfortunately remind us just how vulnerable we are in today’ constant threat environment and the bad guys come in many forms: foreign governments, sophisticated hacker groups, and “insiders” among others. What is your perspective, Steve, regarding the unique value proposition that Extenua brings to the table in today’s IoT, mobility and BYOD environment?
Steve Visconti: Cyberattacks have risen into the many millions of attacks per year, yet security continues to be perfunctory to the organizations overall data strategy. 
It is astonishing to me that some analysts estimate that 60% of U.S. enterprise organization DO NOT have encryption strategies applied across their organization.
Hackers and their tools are very sophisticated including some with automation and its coming from many fronts you just listed. This is precisely why an organization or enterprise must have the most secure and hardened environments possible. Hackers and bad actors will eventually probe and eventually move on to the easier targets. Don’t be that easy target when tools like Cloud2Drive are so easy to implement and non-disruptive.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Congratulations on the Extenua wins with Boeing, BT, HSBC, IBM, NCAA, Nokia, Shell, SONY, Toyota, just to name a few. The list is indeed quite impressive! Without divulging anything confidential, of course, care to discuss any additional details regarding the solution Extenua provided to these blue-chip organizations?
Steve Visconti: Our customers are finding unique ways of utilizing our products. We have managed service providers implementing Cloud2Drive as a secure agent for enterprise backup to cloud utilizing their existing backup software. We have customer that use Cloud2Drive SAFE AI on their web farms to secure data on the backend while allowing the flexibility of HTTPS for access – they implement a truly secure SaaS architecture by simply running our agent. We also offer a full set of REST API for those that want to integrate into existing management systems and other enterprise applications.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: "We are now living in a time of global cyberwar which is real and persistent. Highly sophisticated programs are being released against the public sector every moment of everyday. Intruders have gained access to our most sensitive data. The stakes have never been higher. Extenua's ETESS and SAFE AI software platforms offer the most comprehensive and resilient security for storage available today. At American Cyber we deal with many different complex architectures. Partnering with Extenua solves one of our main concerns - protecting data in transit and at-rest. Once implemented you no longer have to worry about securing you unstructured data."
Please tell us more, Steve, about Extenua’s traction in the government space.
Steve Visconti: I like to say we are protecting the warfighters and their assets. You mentioned Gary Winkler. Gary is a trusted advisor who spent 13 years as an SES officer for various Army data centers. We are fortunate to be working with several public sector projects including various Army operations, Air Force, DISA, US TRANSCOM and the NSA. They all recognize the threats are real and the stakes could not be higher. The public sector is moving rapidly to deploy products like Cloud2Drive and SilverSHielD which allows them the trusted security while at the same time the expanding their mobility access programs.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: You’ve got an amazing management team at Extenua. Care to elaborate?
Steve Visconti: We have a secret weapon in Federico (Fed) Simonetti. Fed is considered one of the top cyber security and AI experts in the world. He started coding computers at the age of 7 with a commercial product at the age of 9!His background is vast having spend time as an ethical hacker, aka DDT, 4 time successful entrepreneur, Italy’s youngest full professor at the time teaching embedded operating system security at the University of Milan and some other activities building cyber security units for law enforcement which he can’t speak about for obvious reasons. If you get the chance, I think you will find his story intriguing. We strengthened our board of directors with seasoned veterans and we have an active top notch technical advisory board.
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Nice job with the White Papers archive, Steve – want to give us a quick overview?
Steve Visconti: Our white papers archive is growing. From our site, you can find interesting topics anywhere from very technical discussions on elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman public key algorithms to implementing a secure web farm or SaaS infrastructure. We will continue to add to our library over time with our soon to be released and much anticipated “Securing Office 365 Enterprise for Todays Hostile Environment”
SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thanks again, Steve, for joining us today...are there any other subjects you would like to discuss?
Steve Visconti: I look forward to new challenges and you can expect to see new announcements from Extenua very soon. Thank you for hosting me.