Imperva sees threats from within as next big issue in cybersecurity

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[November 05, 2015]  By Tova Cohen

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Cybersecurity firm Imperva is counting on rising demand to protect against insider break-ins to seal a turnaround in its business that has seen it recover ground against IBM.

The U.S.-Israeli company says its technology to secure data and web applications taps into a shift away from perimeter defenses such as firewalls to preventing attacks before they can reach inside organizations.

"We think insider threats is one of the next big issues that organizations will have to solve," Chief Executive Anthony Bettencourt told Reuters.

Early next year Imperva plans to launch CounterBreach, a product that applies machine learning and analytics to actual data access patterns in order to more closely safeguard critical data and applications. Other technologies on the market mainly monitor login behavior to try and identify users that might be trying to enter the network, it says.

Over 45 percent of enterprise data breaches result from malicious or compromised inside users, according to the 2015 Verizon Breach report. Most of these are due to careless workers clicking on a phishing email, for example, and enabling outside hackers to access the network.
 


Imperva, which competes against IBM, F5 Networks and Akamai Technologies, was founded in 2002 by three Israelis including Shlomo Kramer, who co-founded network security firm Check Point Software Technologies. He owns 14 percent of California-based Imperva, which has research bases in Israel and Texas.

The company struggled as it lost out on contracts to IBM and others before bringing in Bettencourt to replace Kramer as CEO last year. Bettencourt, who has now added the role of chairman, has been credited with reviving the business by changing tactics, bringing in new experienced management and board members and refining some products.

After losing 203 database deals to IBM between 2010 and early 2015, Imperva, whose customers include leading banks, insurers and telecom providers, has since displaced IBM at more than 40 of those, Bettencourt said.

The company's share price has doubled this year.

"We believe Imperva is the best-of-breed pure play leader in the growing database activity monitoring market and the web application firewall market, with a total addressable market opportunity of more than $4 billion," said Joel Fishbein, an analyst at BTIG brokerage in New York.

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"After some missteps in 2014, Imperva is experiencing accelerated top-line growth, and we believe 20-30 percent growth is sustainable."

Meaningful profitability is probably several years away, Fishbein said, but he rates the stock a "buy", saying it is underpinned by the possibility of consolidation in the security market.

Bettencourt expects revenue growth of at least 25 percent in 2016 and after buying three companies in 2014 says Imperva is looking for more acquisitions, having raised $128 million in a secondary stock offering in New York in March.

The company beat expectations with its third-quarter results last week, as sales jumped 48 percent from a year earlier. It forecast annual adjusted earnings per share of breakeven to 7 cents, versus a 74 cent loss last year, on revenue of $227.6-$229.6 million, up 37-39 percent.

D.A. Davidson analyst Jack Andrews noted though that the security software market is highly competitive. "If Imperva is unable to scale its business effectively in the face of these continually evolving market conditions, operating results could be adversely affected," he said in a note to clients.

(Editing by Eric Auchard and Susan Fenton)

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