Carsten Willems, the CEO & co-founder ofVMRay, has been developing malware detection sandboxes for many years.
During that time, he has seen many different approaches, each with their inherent flaws or limitations.
The sandbox can be used for threat protection, threat intelligence, and/or incident response.
They subsequently sold and promoted the product worldwide and eventually acquired the source code from me.
CWSandbox product is still on the market today under a different name.
After that, I went back to university to get a PhD in cybersecurity.
During that time, I met my co-founder Ralf Hund.
After finishing our PhDs, we co-founded VMRay.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, we saw the arrival of cyber criminals.
This is an awesome time to be in cyber-security!
By the time I completed my doctorate in 2013, there were already many commercial sandboxes on the market.
However, those existing sandboxes had two fundamental problems.
First generation sandboxes use simulators that were extremely slow and are not scalable.
What are the main features of your platform?
We talk about these use cases for VMRay Analyzer:
How do you define your market?
Who is your specific target audience within that market?
What methods do you normally use to attract and engage with new customers?
We do not do many cold calls when we do, it is together with our technology partners.
We do attend and exhibit at security industry events like Blackhat and RSA and engage with potential customers there.
How many active customers do you have today?
Where are they mainly located?
We currently have 50-60 active customers.
We also have customers in Asia (mainly Japan).
How would you describe your current typical customer?
This is done either manually or automatically via our REST API.
Who are some of your biggest customers?
Some of our largest and well-known customers include:
Whom do you see as your main competitors?
Every big security vendor (e.g.
Cisco, NortonLifeLock) includes a sandbox in its offering.
However, their offerings are broad and multi-faceted, with many moving parts.
We focus on doing just one thing and we double-check that we do it very, very well.
How do you see your tools as different as and/or better than theirs?
Our competitors focus on regular attacks.
The motivation for attacks changes over time.
I think that the next big security challenge is going to be the Internet of Things (IoT).
I am very concerned about how this is going to affect us.
The security arms race of attackers versus protectors will continue.
Hypervisor-based security is the way of the future, since attackers cannot detect it.
What are your future plans for VMRay?
This will enable us to get wider adoption and to grow the company.
How many employees do you have today?
Where are they located?
As a multinational and multicultural organization, our company boasts a diverse workforce.
How many hours a day do you normally work?
What do you like to do when you are not working?
I work a lot just like any other entrepreneur.
Since it is fun, I enjoy it very much.
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