IBM Buys Israeli-Founded Cloud Security Startup ‘For $60M’

American technology giant IBM has purchased Israeli-founded startup Polar Security, which tracks and secures cloud data within a company’s own network. 

The purchase reportedly cost IBM $60 million and is the tech conglomerate’s fifth acquisition this year. 

The startup, which was founded two years ago, monitors where a company’s sensitive data is stored and who can access it, as well as identifying any vulnerabilities in security measures. 

It was jointly founded by CEO Guy Shanny, chairman Dov Yoran and CTO Roey Yaacovi. 

Shanny and Yaacovi both worked in cybersecurity at the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, while Yoran was a senior director for security at Cisco. 

IBM says it intends Polar Security’s technology into its Guardium group of data security products. 

“The pandemic drove a sharp increase in cloud adoption, leaving organizations to grapple with a deluge of cloud data that led to more silos and ‘shadow data’ – sensitive data not being tracked or managed,”  IBM said in its announcement. 

“An agentless platform that connects within minutes, Polar Security can automatically find unknown and sensitive data across the cloud, including structured and unstructured assets,” it said. 

“Once discovered, Polar Security classifies the data, maps the potential and actual flow of that data, and identifies vulnerabilities, such as misconfigurations, over-entitlements, and behavior that violates policy or regulations.”