Security solution protects data-in-use with full-memory encryption

Aug 8, 2014 00:51 GMT  ·  By

On Thursday, Facebook announced that it acquired a security company that offers solutions for securing servers in untrusted environments as well as for protecting data in use.

The technology under PrivateCore’s belt is designed to fight advanced persistent threats (APT), such as rootkits and bootkits that can evade classical antivirus detection.

In the acquisition announcement, PrivateCore CEO Oded Horovitz said that their effort had been poured into creating a technology that can safeguard machines against unauthorized physical access and malicious hardware devices.

“Working together with Facebook, there is a huge opportunity to pursue our joint vision at scale with incredible impact. Over time, Facebook plans to deploy our technology into the Facebook stack to help protect the people who use Facebook,” Horovitz said.

The vCage technology from PrivateCore relies on virtualization and cryptography to maintain the integrity of the machines and of the data in use.

Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan posted on his social network account that the team at PrivateCore was “made up of top-notch security veterans with a lot of experience” and that the solution they created was “making it safer to run any application in outsourced, hosted or cloud environments.”

“I believe that PrivateCore’s technology and expertise will help support Facebook’s mission to help make the world more open and connected, in a secure and trusted way. Over time, we plan to deploy PrivateCore’s technology directly into the Facebook server stack,” Sullivan wrote in the Facebook post.

No details about the terms of the acquisition have been provided.