BrandWikiReturn

ZeroFox

ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. is an American 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 was then called ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. and traded 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 would 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

  • In October 2020, ZeroFox acquired Cyveillance from LookingGlass in a move designed to merge Cyveillance's threat intelligence data cache and dark web intelligence capabilities with the ZeroFox Digital Risk Protection Platform.[13]
  • In July 2021, the company acquired Vigilante, a dark web threat intelligence company.[14]
  • In August 2022, the company acquired IDX, a breach response company.[15][16]
  • In April 2023, the company acquired LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, an external attack surface management and threat intelligence company.[17]
  • In November 2024, ZeroFox divested its IDX subsidiary to Kingswood Capital Management[18].

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.[19][20][21] ZeroFox was unsuccessful at differentiating between impersonating troll accounts and Elzie's actual social media presence.[22]

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.[23][24][25]

External links

References

  1. Dylan Tweney. Funding Daily: Very big private equity and very small microgadgets Venture Beat, April 30, 2014, retrieved May 1, 2014^
  2. Noah Kulwin. Capital Gains: Another $2 Billion Crosses Into Uber's Event Horizon, Peloton Raises Big Cash ReCode, Dec 8, 2015, retrieved Dec 6, 2015^
  3. South Baltimore Business Roundup Southbmore.com, 21 January 2016^
  4. South Baltimore Business Roundup Southbmore.com, 19 July 2017^
  5. ZeroFox Global Partner Program ZeroFox.com, retrieved 21 November 2021^
  6. Shweta Sharma. ZeroFox partners with Google Cloud to warn users against phishing domains CSO Online, 2023-04-11, retrieved 2023-05-17^
  7. Baltimore's ZeroFox raises one of Maryland's largest funding rounds for cyber firms Bizjournals.com, retrieved 21 November 2021^
  8. Liz Claman. ZeroFox proactively attacks cyber threats from 'Main Street to Mars': CEO Fox Business, 4 August 2022^
  9. Malia Spencer. ZeroFox goes public in a SPAC, completes acquisition of Portland's IDX American City Business Journals, 4 August 2022^
  10. Steve Zurier. 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. Haveli Investments Completes Acquisition of ZeroFox ZeroFox Holdings, 2024-05-13, retrieved 2024-05-29^
  13. Charlie Osborne. ZeroFox acquires Cyveillance threat intelligence business from LookingGlass ZDNet, retrieved 2020-10-07^
  14. ZeroFox acquires dark web threat intelligence company Vigilante TechCrunch, retrieved 2022-01-29^
  15. ZeroFox Begins Trading on Nasdaq Under Symbol "ZFOX" ZeroFox, retrieved 2023-05-17^
  16. Cybersecurity company ZeroFox acquires IDX, merges with L&F to create $1.4 billion entity ZDNET, retrieved 2023-05-17^
  17. ZeroFox Completes Acquisition of LookingGlass ZeroFox, retrieved 2023-05-17^
  18. Sean Hennessy. Kingswood Capital Management Acquires IDX, a Leading Provider of Data Breach Response Services and Digital Privacy Protection Kingswood Capital Management, L.P., 2024-11-25, retrieved 2026-03-26^
  19. "Baltimore's ZeroFox faces backlash over riot threat report; CEO James Foster responds"^
  20. Activist DeRay Mckesson's Social Media Has Been Monitored by Department of Homeland Security: Report The Root, August 15, 2015, retrieved May 7, 2018^
  21. Brandon E. Patterson. Black Lives Matter organizers were labeled as "threat actors" by a cybersecurity firm Mother Jones, 3 August 2015, retrieved 26 October 2022^
  22. Ken Klippenstein. FBI Hired Social Media Surveillance Firm That Labeled Black Lives Matter Organizers "Threat Actors" The Intercept, 2023-07-06, retrieved 2023-07-06^
  23. Davis. Warnings of violence before Jan. 6 precipitated the Capitol riot Washington Post, 31 October 2021, retrieved 31 October 2021^
  24. Dilanian. Why did the FBI miss the threats about Jan. 6 on social media? NBC News, 8 March 2021, retrieved 1 November 2021^
  25. FBI Social Media Alerting Sam.gov^