Security startup ThreatStream has closed a $22 million Series B funding round, it said Thursday, adding yet another security company to the list of those landing cash in recent months. ThreatStream’s CEO is Hugh Njemanze, a former founder and CTO of the security firm ArcSight, which Hewlett-Packard gobbled up for $1.5 billion in 2010.
The Redwood City-based startup claims its OPTIC system can hook up to an organization’s existing security tools as well as social media, messaging systems and honeynet sensor farms — essentially makeshift networks full of security holes that are designed to attract hackers so that an organization can learn how the bad guys behave.
Once OPTIC is plugged into the various systems, it can analyze potential threats and rank them according to how severe they are. The basic point of OPTIC is to reduce the amount of noise so that a company’s security staff can concentrate on the most important security problems without having to waste time on not-so-urgent threats.
From a ThreatStream data sheet detailing the system:
Once OPTIC collects, normalizes and risk ranks IOCs, the platform enables seamless integration into the enterprise by utilizing a lightweight dedicated connector. The OPTIC connector allows organizations to dynamically sync threat intelligence from the cloud into their current security devices where it becomes immediately available for correlation.
ThreatStream makes for another security firm with roots from ArcSight that seems to be picking up steam. In November, startup CipherCloud took in a $50 million funding round. Its CEO, Pravin Kothari, was an ArcSight co-founder and senior vice president of engineering.
General Catalyst Partners drove the funding round along with new investor Institutional Venture Partners and existing investors Google Ventures and Paladin Capital Group. General Catalyst Partners managing director Steve Herrod will take a seat on ThreatStream’s board.
