CyActive

CyActive was a predictive cybersecurity company that developed technology to forecast malware evolution and proactively defend against future cyber threats before they emerged. The firm was founded in 2013 in Beersheba, Israel, by CEO Liran Tancman and CTO Shlomi Boutnaru, both of whom have backgrounds in military intelligence. The company was established within the Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) cyber incubator.

The company's core technology applied bio-inspired algorithms to analyze existing malware and predict how hackers would likely modify it for future attacks. This approach aimed to shift the advantage from attackers to defenders by creating proactive detection for threats that had not yet been seen. CyActive's solutions were designed to be lightweight and suitable for a range of clients, including large enterprises and operators of industrial control systems (ICS) and SCADA equipment. The technology analyzed malware components to identify reused code, exploiting what it termed the 'laziness' of hackers who frequently recycle existing code for new attacks.

CyActive secured approximately $2 million in funding from investors including JVP and the venture capital unit of Siemens. In March 2015, just over a year after its founding, CyActive was acquired by PayPal for a reported $60 million. The acquisition was part of PayPal's strategy to enhance its global security operations and establish a new cybersecurity hub in Israel, integrating CyActive's predictive technology into its security platform. Following the acquisition, founders Liran Tancman and Shlomi Boutnaru went on to co-found another cybersecurity company, Rezilion.

Keywords: predictive cybersecurity, malware evolution, proactive threat detection, bio-inspired algorithms, cyber threat forecasting, SCADA security, malware analysis, endpoint protection, JVP, PayPal acquisition, Liran Tancman, Shlomi Boutnaru, industrial control systems security, future-proof security, malware prevention