Karim Toubba

Kenna Security, the enterprise provider in risk-based vulnerability management, and VMware Carbon Black, a provider in cloud-native next-generation endpoint security, are partnering to power the vulnerability assessment and risk scoring capabilities of Carbon Black Cloud WorkloadTM. As a result of this partnership, enterprises running VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload will be able to efficiently and effectively prioritise critical vulnerabilities and reduce risk to their servers and workloads. Cloud security “As organizations continue their journey towards cloud transformation and application modernisation, it’s time to rethink cloud security,” said Patrick Morley, Senior Vice President and General Manager of VMware Carbon Black. “VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload will introduce a new approach to cloud security, extending protection to the workload level to reduce the attack surface." “Utilizing Kenna Security’s vulnerability assessment, we will be able to deliver an intuitive, transparent approach that breaks down barriers between security and operations teams to empower organizations to gain control of vulnerability management programs to better secure critical servers and workloads.” VMware Carbon Black is able to provide an elegant solution to a long-standing challenge in enterprise cybersecurity By leveraging Kenna Security capabilities, VMware Carbon Black is able to provide an elegant solution to a long-standing challenge in enterprise cybersecurity. Many organizations have the capacity to patch only a fraction of the vulnerabilities threatening their environments. Prioritizing vulnerabilities Additionally, traditional scanning is often too cumbersome for the large number of endpoints in their environment. Although not all vulnerabilities pose a proven risk of weaponization, the challenge for organizations is identifying which vulnerabilities to focus on. With the inclusion of Kenna’s vulnerability assessment capabilities, VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload is able to efficiently focus resources on the specific critical vulnerabilities facing each organization. Reducing risk “The relationship between security teams and vCenter admins is critical for maintaining uptime and protecting cloud workloads, but it simply doesn’t work effectively when these teams are speaking different languages with different priorities,” said Karim Toubba, Chief Executive Officer at Kenna Security. “Vulnerability management is not only about finding the most vulnerabilities—it’s also about fixing the right ones. By leveraging Kenna Security, VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload will help organizations align on prioritising vulnerabilities so they can improve their security intuitively, reducing risk while also becoming more efficient at the process as a whole.” Real-time infrastructure and software inventory data VMware Carbon Black will leverage Kenna Security’s inference technology to analyse real-time infrastructureVMware Carbon Black will leverage Kenna Security’s inference technology to analyze real-time infrastructure and software inventory data collected by VMware Carbon Black, in order to identify and prioritise vulnerabilities based on Kenna’s robust, contextual data. This will give organizations utilising VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload full visibility into their vulnerability environment without having to run authenticated scans or deploy yet another cumbersome agent. Six-month unlimited free trial By utilising Kenna’s proven data science techniques in the application of machine learning and natural language processing to uniquely curate and customize threat datasets, including more than 15 exploit and threat intelligence feeds and more than 7 billion managed vulnerabilities, VMware Carbon Black will give organizations the power to apply Kenna’s predictive modeling to forecast the weaponization of new vulnerabilities with a confirmed 94 percent accuracy rate, and then prioritise their remediation activities based on the risk of exploitation. VMware customers can experience the advanced new solution with a six-month unlimited free trial of VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload Essentials, available for all current vSphere 6.5 and VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 customers. 

Kenna Security, the enterprise provider in risk-based vulnerability management, has hired David La France to be its new vice president of engineering. In that role, he will oversee Kenna’s development, architecture, quality assurance, systems, reliability, program management, and documentation. “Dave is that rare talent that understands both the cultural and engineering challenges that companies face during high growth phases,” said Karim Toubba, CEO of Kenna Security. “He’s a strong contributor who can make an immediate impact in leading our engineering team and driving success for our business.” Senior leadership roles Prior to joining Kenna Security, La France held senior leadership roles at Synack, SquareTrade, and Zynga, where he led several teams with high annual revenue, millions of daily users, and multiple daily releases. “Kenna Security is the leader in risk-based vulnerability management. This is a tremendous opportunity to further advance how they are helping organizations better handle risk,” La France said. “It’s a solid foundation to build on and grow as we continue to improve enterprise-grade cybersecurity. I’m thrilled to have been chosen for this role.”