Cymmetria

Cymmetria was a cybersecurity firm specializing in deception technology, founded in 2014 by a team of security experts including Gadi Evron, Dean Sysman, Ran Harel, and Imri Goldberg. With its primary research and development operations in Tel Aviv, Israel, the company aimed to alter the traditional asymmetry of cyber defense, putting attackers at a disadvantage. Gadi Evron, who served as CEO, brought extensive experience to the venture, having previously been the CISO for the Israeli government's internet operations and a Vice-President of Cybersecurity Strategy at Kaspersky Lab.

The company's core business revolved around its flagship product, MazeRunner, a platform that created a virtual layer of decoy servers, breadcrumbs (false data like credentials), and traps that mirrored an organization's actual network. This approach was designed to lure attackers into a controlled environment upon breaching the perimeter. By observing the attackers' interactions with these decoys, security teams could detect their presence, study their methods, and gather intelligence to neutralize threats before they reached critical assets. Cymmetria catered to enterprise clients, offering its products, such as MazeRunner and ActiveSOC, to hunt for threats, detect lateral movement within a network, and automate incident response. The company also provided deception as a service, allowing for customized deployments. A free 'Community Edition' of MazeRunner was also released to encourage broader adoption and research.

Cymmetria secured approximately $11 million in funding over two rounds, backed by investors including Y Combinator, Felicis Ventures, and Seedcamp. The company gained recognition for its effectiveness, claiming to have caught multiple nation-state-sponsored attacks with its commercial products. In September 2019, Cymmetria was acquired by Stage Fund, a private equity firm, with plans to establish a new headquarters in Denver to scale sales and marketing while maintaining R&D in Tel Aviv. However, a few months later, in December 2019, Stage Fund shut down the Israeli operations, leading to the company's eventual liquidation.

Keywords: deception technology, cybersecurity, threat hunting, network security, incident response, honeypot, threat detection, APT, lateral movement, acquired