ZeroFox

ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. is an external cyber security 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.

ZeroFox Holdings, Inc.
TypePublic company
Nasdaq: ZFOX
ISINUS98955G1031
IndustryCyber Security
Founded2013 (2013)
Founders
  • James C. Foster
  • Evan L. Blair
HeadquartersBaltimore, Maryland
Number of locations
3
Websitewww.zerofox.com

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]

In May 2022, the fraud-tracking website Hucksters.net reported that takedownreporting.com, an anonymous website that had been generating hundreds of fraudulent "takedown" requests under the guise of U.S. trademark laws, is in fact owned by ZeroFox and being used by their corporate clients to delete unflattering web pages from the internet.[8]

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 is now called ZeroFox Holdings, Inc. and trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “ZFOX” for its common stock and “ZFOXW” for its publicly traded warrants.[9][10][11]

ZeroFox has satellite offices in Portland, Santiago, London, and Bengaluru.

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.[12][13][14] ZeroFox was unsuccessful at differentiating between impersonating troll accounts and Elzie's actual social media presence.[15]

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.[16][17][18]

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.[19]

In July 2021, the company acquired Vigilante, a dark web threat intelligence company.[20]

In August 2022, the company acquired IDX, a breach response company.[21][22]

In April 2023, the company acquired LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, an external attack surface management and threat intelligence company.[23]

References
  1. Tweney, Dylan (April 30, 2014). "Funding Daily: Very big private equity and very small microgadgets". Venture Beat. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  2. Kulwin, Noah (Dec 8, 2015). "Capital Gains: Another $2 Billion Crosses Into Uber's Event Horizon, Peloton Raises Big Cash". ReCode. 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. Sharma, Shweta (2023-04-11). "ZeroFox partners with Google Cloud to warn users against phishing domains". CSO Online. 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. "ZeroFOX (James Foster) Takedown Fraud Exposed - Hucksters".
  9. Claman, Liz (4 August 2022). "ZeroFox proactively attacks cyber threats from 'Main Street to Mars': CEO". Fox Business.
  10. Spencer, Malia (4 August 2022). "ZeroFox goes public in a SPAC, completes acquisition of Portland's IDX". American City Business Journals.
  11. Zurier, Steve (4 August 2022). "IT security company ZeroFox goes public despite concerns over market conditions". SC Media.
  12. "Baltimore's ZeroFox faces backlash over riot threat report; CEO James Foster responds"
  13. "Activist DeRay Mckesson's Social Media Has Been Monitored by Department of Homeland Security: Report". The Root. August 15, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  14. Brandon E. Patterson (3 August 2015). "Black Lives Matter organizers were labeled as "threat actors" by a cybersecurity firm". Mother Jones. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  15. Klippenstein, Ken (2023-07-06). "FBI Hired Social Media Surveillance Firm That Labeled Black Lives Matter Organizers "Threat Actors"". The Intercept. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  16. Davis, Aaron C. (31 October 2021). "Warnings of violence before Jan. 6 precipitated the Capitol riot". Washington Post. Retrieved 31 October 2021. But the end-of-the-year changeover limited the FBI's understanding of what was happening online at a key juncture, just as extremists were mobilizing. FBI agents started using an alternative service known as ZeroFox that was unfamiliar to many in the bureau. The change came as a surprise, causing confusion about how to use the new system. Some agents and analysts felt the new service was a significant downgrade, particularly when it came to tracking things on Twitter. Within the FBI, some frustrated agents quickly started using a derisive nickname for ZeroFox — replacing the "Fox" with a similar-sounding expletive, to indicate how little use it seemed to have.31"It wasn't that we were blind, it just turned out to be a bad time to have less visibility into what was happening online, because we were changing systems and a lot of people didn't really know the new system," said one person familiar with the matter.
  17. Dilanian, Ken (8 March 2021). "Why did the FBI miss the threats about Jan. 6 on social media?". NBC News. Retrieved 1 November 2021. Fact check: false. FBI agents have said in court records that they monitor public social media, and the bureau recently signed a $14 million contract with a "threat intelligence" company called ZeroFox "to proactively identify threats to the United States and its interests" on the internet. For years, the FBI has had a similar arrangement with DataMinr, which can flag social media postings of interest to its clients.
  18. "FBI Social Media Alerting". Sam.gov.
  19. Osborne, Charlie. "ZeroFox acquires Cyveillance threat intelligence business from LookingGlass". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  20. "ZeroFox acquires dark web threat intelligence company Vigilante". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
  21. "ZeroFox Begins Trading on Nasdaq Under Symbol "ZFOX"". ZeroFox. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  22. "Cybersecurity company ZeroFox acquires IDX, merges with L&F to create $1.4 billion entity". ZDNET. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  23. "ZeroFox Completes Acquisition of LookingGlass". ZeroFox. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
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