Cognyte - Experts & Thought Leaders

Intellicene, a provider of intelligent software platforms that empower organisations to better understand and respond to mission-critical events, announces the close of its acquisition by Volaris Group and the launch of its new brand. Previously known as Cognyte Situational Intelligence Solutions (SIS), the new Intellicene embodies a strategic new direction and an ambition to being a global security intelligence leader of choice. Transform security management Led by veteran Security Executive Alan Stoddard, Intellicene incorporates former SIS employees and assets, including the Symphia suite of technologies. The new name and strategic direction also introduces ‘The Age of Intelligence’ which showcases Intellicene’s mission to transform security management from a reactive endeavour to a proactive process that is highly effective, data-driven, and measurable. The new name and strategic direction also introduces ‘The Age of Intelligence’ The launch of Intellicene follows an incredibly successful year, which saw the company strengthen its presence with new customer wins. Volaris’ buy-and hold philosophy provides stability, shared best practices and a global footprint that can create new opportunities for Intellicene. Intelligent software platforms Sitting at the nexus of awareness, insight, and action, Intellicene delivers integrated, intelligent software platforms that help leaders better understand and respond to critical situations across their organisations. The company has provided intelligent security management platforms to a wide variety of mission-critical, global businesses for more than 20 years since its formation under Verint Systems in 2002. “We are excited for Intellicene to enter this next chapter and together with Volaris see compelling opportunities to accelerate our growth trajectory and enhance customer focus,” said CEO Alan Stoddard. He adds, “With the strong support of our new owners, we are well positioned to capitalise on the many opportunities before us, and we see tremendous potential to expand our reach into new markets and drive new innovations and capabilities.” Identifying potential threats Intellicene is focused on ensuring stakeholders have the right tools to help protect operations Intellicene is focused on ensuring stakeholders have the right tools to help protect operations, assets, and people. With extensive expertise in the security and IT realms, the company and its team has helped ensure the safety of well-regarded brands by developing solutions that help leaders better understand and respond to critical situations. Its Symphia software platform connects to and correlates data from virtually any device, system, or software, providing the real-time awareness and actionable insights needed to identify potential threats and respond effectively. “We’re pleased to complete this acquisition and support Alan and the management team in building their vision for Intellicene,” said Carl Bruce, Volaris Group. “We see this market as holding tremendous opportunity, and under our ownership, Intellicene is well positioned for future growth.” Real-time awareness Stoddard brings significant experience in global organisations and has more than 12 years of experience in the security industry. In addition to Stoddard, the senior leadership team includes Uri Shaffer, Vice President of Sales for EMEA and APAC; Craig Levin, Chief Financial Officer; Yosi Rahamim, Vice President of Research and Development; Mike Howanitz, Vice President of Sales and Business Operations; Joey Caluori, Vice President of Operations; Eran Wachman, Vice President of Product Management; Tracy Markum, Vice President of Sales for the Americas; and Jeffrey Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer.

Cognyte Situational Intelligence Solutions (Cognyte) has unveiled its Symphia solutions portfolio, designed to connect and synchronise mission-critical systems, in order to gain contextualised, visual insights to threats and risks. Developed to empower security practitioners with informed decision-making and optimal response, Symphia is an intelligence-driven portfolio of security solutions that work in concert, in order to deliver actionable insights for deeper situational awareness and command and control. Symphia solutions Cognyte’s Symphia solutions fuse inputs from multiple security systems and thousands of cameras and sensors for a comprehensive view across an entire business. Through AI (Artificial Intelligence) and predictive analytics, security operations centres (SOCs) in mission critical and highly dispersed security environments can anticipate threats in real time and prevent risk scenarios. Alan Stoddard, the President of Cognyte North America, said “With Symphia, security practitioners can transform security operations with intelligent, data-driven security management and response, while simplifying operations and reducing costs.” Integration of any device, service or solution There is an increasing interest in solutions that enable the integration of both legacy and new devices Alan Stoddard adds, “By supporting the integration of any device, service or solution, and combine data into one pane-of-glass, organisations achieve higher levels of awareness. Symphia then takes it a step further, by analysing combined data and providing guidance on how to best respond.” With increased demand to simplify, streamline and improve the efficiency of existing technology investments, there is an increasing interest in solutions that enable the integration of both legacy and new devices. Symphia integrates all devices and data points Symphia integrates all devices and data points, and it analyses and visualises disparate information at scale, in order to help teams identify what matters most. The Symphia solutions portfolio includes: Symphia VMS It is a fully integrated video management platform that includes automated system health monitoring and event responses, investigation management, and a software-based virtual matrix. It is designed to make video security more manageable, reliable, and cost effective. It is based on open architecture and scales from a single location to large, complex, and geographically distributed operations. Symphia One Transforms the standard security operations centre (SOC) to an intelligent security operations centre (ISOC), by delivering information that supports data-driven security management and response. Actionable intelligence helps predict, prepare, and prevent potential threats, and mitigate active incidents. Symphia Control Collects, interprets and contextualises massive amounts of data from multiple systems and inputs to deliver comprehensive situational awareness for greater command and control. It enables operators to make immediate decisions, with up-to-the-minute information. Symphia NowForce Incident management and response technology fuses critical data and immediately provides comprehensive situational awareness. Dispatchers, responders, and other resources can share insights in real-time, by utilising live and historical event data with GIS maps, geo-fencing, responder positions, reporter inputs, and other external sources. Symphia Connect Supports flow of data between integrated safety and security systems, across the Symphia solutions portfolio. With these integrations, an organisation can improve response time, lower costs, and increase operational efficiency. Robust enterprise-class platform Cognyte leads the industry with this robust enterprise-class platform that large-scale surveillance and security deployments require. Leaders achieve data consolidation that provides immediate ROI, while being able scale quickly as needs evolve. For a complete list of Cognyte solutions that are purpose-built for a broad spectrum of demanding security environments, visit the company’s official website. ISC West 2022 Customers interested in seeing their new solutions portfolio can visit the Cognyte stand, at booth #23099, at the ISC West 2022 security event, taking place at the Venetian Expo, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, from March 24 to March 26, 2022.

viisights, a developer of unique behavioural recognition video analytics, has announced a US$ 10 million fundraising round, led by Israeli VC firm - Hive2040, with the participation of Migdal Insurance and existing investors, headed by Firstime Ventures. These funds will expand marketing efforts and product enhancements for viisights, in order to penetrate additional target markets, and initiate a new SaaS business model. Asaf Birenzvieg, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Founder at viisights, said “We plan to offer customers, in multiple target markets, unique real-time automated behaviour recognition solutions that improve safety and security without requiring CAPEX investments. We anticipate that by the end of 2023 more than half of our company's revenue will come from SaaS services.” Automated behaviour recognition solutions viisights uses the most advanced AI-powered algorithms available to recognise abnormal behaviours viisights uses the most advanced AI-powered algorithms available to recognise abnormal behaviours and events of special interest, including violent events, such as fighting or bullying, and suspicious activity recognition, such as loitering, looting and vandalism, and then raises real-time alerts. Unlike other typical machine learning processes that analyse individual images, viisights analyses sequences of images to distinguish innocent behaviours, such as dancing from problem behaviours, such as fighting. “This is the future of video analytics, an understanding of what is currently happening or what is about to happen – compared to just extracting the objects that exist in an image,” said Asaf Birenzvieg, adding “viisights can extract much more information and insights from video content in real-time, than any other company, delivering more value for end-users.” Partnership with PSA and Cognyte viisights offers its products through a growing network of strategic relationships with system integrators and sales channel partners. Recently the company announced partnerships with PSA Security Network (PSA), the largest system integrators organisation in the USA and Cognyte, a globally renowned company in security analytics software. viisights provides solutions for safe and smart cities, educational and enterprise campuses, manufacturing facilities, industrial zones, critical infrastructure sites, and transportation hubs that need advanced insights in real time, in order to better ensure the safety and security of people, property, and assets. Fast growing video analytics market The video analytics market itself is expected to grow to about US$ 4 billion by 2025, according to the latest Omdia research. Established in 2015, viisights was founded by Asaf Birenzvieg (CEO), Menashe Rothschild (Chief Product Officer - CPO), Amjad Akkawi (Chief Technology Officer - CTO), and Simon Polak (Chief Scientist), together with Maya Scheyer (Vice President of Business Development), and employs 31 people in its offices in Tel Aviv, Israel and New York, USA and 8 people in Ukraine.

Intellicene is a new name in security, but not a newcomer to the industry. Intellicene is the new brand for a company with a long history. Previously known as Verint Situational Intelligence Solutions, the company spun off its cyber intelligence business in 2021, which was rebranded as Cognyte. The former Cognyte Situational Intelligence Solutions is now Intellicene. It still delivers the Symphia platform and portfolio of solutions that enable organisations to better understand and respond to mission-critical events. They still have the same customers. It’s a new company with 20+ years of expertise in the security industry. “We still have the same team,” says Alan Stoddard, CEO, Intellicene. “But now we have the stability and support to thrive under new ownership.” Robust technology portfolio The new owner is Volaris Group, whose mission is to acquire, strengthen, and grow vertical market technology companies and empower them to be clear leaders within their industries. Volaris purchased Intellicene because of its overall strategy, robust technology portfolio, and the future growth path, says Stoddard. “Their fundamental instruction to date has been, ‘do what you're doing, but do it faster'." Volaris sees opportunities for inorganic growth while turbocharging Intellicene’s organic growth Volaris sees opportunities for inorganic growth while turbocharging Intellicene’s organic growth. Intellicene’s competency is an area of primary focus for Volaris, and they seek to use the company as an anchor point to grow and expand. Symphia solutions portfolio “Our entire team has transitioned to Intellicene, and they are enthusiastic about the future of the business,” says Stoddard. “Our complete Symphia solutions portfolio is also part of what we offer as Intellicene. Customers around the globe rely on Symphia to protect what matters most to them, and we intend to invest further in R&D and engineering.” For Intellicene, the transition amounts to business as usual. They have communicated to partners and customers that they will be working with the same people and can expect to continue existing levels of service and support. “From the first day the deal was announced, we prioritised informing our clients about the transaction, what it means for us, and how it will improve their experience with the company moving forward,” says Stoddard. “Clear communication is critical in these situations.” Real-time awareness Intellicene’s success reflects the growing reliance on using data in the enterprise Intellicene’s success reflects the growing reliance on using data in the enterprise. “We work to solve the data problem,” says Stoddard. “Security and business leaders use a wide array of connected devices and systems, and there are mountains of data derived from these connected devices. But without context and comprehension, this flood of data is simply chaos. Instead of adding value, operators are left overwhelmed and need help understanding everything.” Intellicene provides tools that empower users to mine uncorrelated data. Its technology portfolio is designed to connect and correlate data from virtually any device, system, or software, providing the real-time awareness and actionable insights needed to identify potential threats and respond effectively, says Stoddard. Situational awareness solutions Some customers assume that such platforms, which can connect and analyse security data, are like the PSIM (physical security information management) solutions of yesterday. But there is a difference. “Traditional PSIMs essentially told you that you have a problem without providing context or guidance on how to address it,” says Stoddard. “Situational awareness solutions provide that context and guidance along with the means, through Symphia NowForce, to take critical action when incidents arise.” The solutions help transform the mindset of security leaders from reactive to proactive. “They help provide the opportunity to not only connect the dots but help businesses respond to events,” says Stoddard.

Technologies and trends in the security marketplace come and go with some regularity. But how can you tell which trends are gaining traction and which amount to ‘the flavour of the month.’ For guidance, we asked our Expert Panel Roundtable: Which new security trend do you think is here to stay?

As security professionals, one of our goals is a continuous improvement when it comes to protecting people, facilities, and assets. A useful tool for continuous improvement is to apply ‘lessons learned’ in the past to challenges in the future. Because 2021 will be remembered as a challenging and eventful year for all of us, let’s consider what we can learn from the experiences of 2021. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What security lessons did we learn during 2021?