Linx Blog

In more exciting news at Linx, former Chief Revenue Officer at Okta, Adam Aarons, has just joined the company’s board of directors. We sat down to ask him why—and this is what he shared with us.

Not just another tech startup

When I first met the team at Linx I was blown away by what I saw. And I don’t mean that lightly. They haven’t just built a great product that outperforms the competition. They've literally cracked the code on cloud-based identity governance—a problem that has been near impossible to solve as it involves 3 critical factors that influence each other.

One, most cybersecurity and identity companies do governance as an add-on—an extension of their products and services. Making it feel like an afterthought instead of a fully-fledged product. Two, existing solutions to date have been legacy, on-prem solutions. This means implementation is not only difficult but also lengthy and expensive.  And three, as a result of these first two factors, enterprise companies only end up implementing identity governance over a fraction of their total number of applications. Leaving them with countless vulnerabilities that they don’t even know exist.

Laser-focused on identity, and only identity 

The team at Linx hasn’t just built a great product with a phenomenal user experience. Compared to all the other solutions that I’ve seen, Linx comes out on top in every single way. And the real-world impact they’re delivering is felt by everyone—from the identity team, to the CISO.

As a cloud-based, SaaS, pure identity governance solution, Linx enables you to see and control who has access to which apps, who’s doing what activities within which systems, and what liabilities this causes. So it not only gives enterprises full governance over all applications in their stack, but it enables you to see and remediate any environment—from the cloud, without creating latency.

The result is that Linx is not just more effective, it’s swifter, and far more resourceful than other solutions.

And really, the bottom line is, if you can't accurately govern identities across your entire organization and all its constituents, that means you're exposed. Period. But that's exactly where Linx shines.

In today’s market, you see a lot of companies shifting according to the hype. SaaS Security companies have become identity-centric SaaS, DSPM has become identity-centric DSPM—the list goes on and on. Whoever wants to focus on Identity, the core element of the security and governance stack of companies - should be laser-focused on Identity only. Linx is very clear about what they are after and this extreme focus from the get-go is crucial on the path to leading a market. 

Reducing risk—and strengthening your security posture

What’s also unique about Linx is that it gives you a complete picture of your whole identity landscape, enriched with contextual governance data collected from all your applications and environments.

You can then feed this data into your other security applications such as Snowflake or CrowdStrike, to make sure that they’re on the same page and are operating as they should be. Ultimately creating a more robust security posture for your organization.

And with the recent waves of identity attacks in the news, it’s clear that the market desperately needs this additional security and risk layer. The fact that Linx has built a team with so many security veterans has enabled them to offer a product that’s the perfect combination of governance and security—in one platform.

Why I'm all in on Linx

Identity governance has long been ripe for disruption, and in my personal view, Linx is leading the change. They've got the most focused and best product in this space, backed by a team that's proving they can solve real-world problems.

I'm betting on Linx because they're not just talking about innovation—they're actually doing it. And in a market where traditional players have shown they're not keeping up, Linx is the company that's going to win.

So, if you're looking to truly govern identity across your extended environment with a complete solution, Linx is the way to go. And believe me when I say, this is one startup you'll want to keep your eye on.

Because the future of identity governance and security is already here.

After a little over a year of relentlessly hard (and fun!) work alongside my co-founder, Niv Goldenberg, I’m excited to share that today Linx Security is emerging from stealth.

Already working with large-scale companies across a large variety of industries such as financial services, retail, real estate, technology companies and others, Linx is helping them dramatically shrink their identity attack surface and close major gaps in compliance—by enabling them to finally get control over their whole identity lifecycle with our identity lifecycle management solution.

Here is how we got to where we are today.

From physics to 8200 to identity security

Niv and I go back a long time. Twenty years back, in fact.

We first met while working together in the army’s cybersecurity unit (8200, the NSA equivalent). The sheer urgency and complexity of the projects we were tasked with played a critical role in molding our approach to problem-solving. And we found a mutual passion for tackling challenges head-on—especially, the types of challenges that others had already given up on.

Our shared passion continued through university, where we collaborated on physics and computer science projects. And it carried through to our professional roles—myself as the Director of Engineering at Checkpoint Security, and Niv as the VP of Product at Transmit Security. But we always knew that one day, we would tackle some of the world’s most complex issues together.

From our origins in physics to 20+ years in the cybersecurity space gave us dual abilities: one, the ability to ask the right questions (which is never as straightforward as it seems), and two, the ability to find the most practical way to resolve the problem—quickly. “Who should have access to what?” is such an easy question to ask, but so difficult to resolve. But as soon as this problem is solved, it would significantly relieve the pressure from enterprises where most of them have moved to having identity as their main perimeter. A complexity that we feel fortunate to have the opportunity at Linx to solve.

The evolution of identity security

Identity Authorization used to be simple. It was a closed system, on-prem, based on one source of truth—the Active Directory.

Meaning the biggest problem for companies was authentication and verification. Ensuring only authorized users had access to your systems, assets, and information.

But just as the law of conservation of momentum states, momentum is constant in an isolated system unless an external force is applied.

And that’s exactly what happened to identity. In a very short period of time, it had multiple, external forces thrown at it—which significantly increased its momentum, causing identity management and security to spin out of control.

First, it was the shift of infrastructure and applications to the cloud—beyond the control of on-prem solutions. Second, this shift to the cloud led to a rapid increase in the scale of human identities—we see this today, with one person owning multiple online aliases and login credentials. And third, the fast introduction of machine identities to organizations.

Further complicating matters, at large organizations, identity is fractured across three siloed teams: identity, security, and IT. Each team tackles identity from a different perspective, using their own tools for their specific responsibilities within the lifecycle. This fragmented approach creates a complex mess, filled with security and compliance risks – even with the wealth of existing solutions available.

And even though countless solutions existed for identity verification, authentication, and security, companies were still struggling to get identity under control.

We thought—why? Why does it have to be so hard? Why does it have to be so complicated?

That was the moment we knew we had found the challenge we wanted to solve.

So we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

Uniting security, identity, and IT teams to get control over identity security

The result is what you see today: Linx, a refreshingly different identity security platform that is a significant departure from existing solutions.

Linx enables organizations to finally get the whole identity lifecycle under control with a radically modern approach that unites identity, security, and IT ops teams—by mapping the hidden relationships between employees, their digital identities, and the apps, software, platforms, and programs they have access to.

By providing the right tools, visibility, and understanding, along with deeply contextual insights and automated workflows, Linx allows these teams to work together efficiently and seamlessly to control and secure identity. Enabling organizations to ultimately shrink their identity attack surface and close gaps in compliance.

To our customers, we thank you for your ongoing support and trust. And to Index and Cyberstarts, and to our advisors—your guidance has been instrumental in making this product a reality.

To my co-founder, Niv, and the rest of our amazing team—I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished so far, and I can't wait to share even more details about our product and vision as the months unfold.

We are excited for what the future holds as we untangle the complexity of identity security. Once and for all.

NEW YORK, New York, July 22, 2024 – Linx Security, a pioneer in modern identity security and governance solutions, emerged today from stealth and announced that it has raised $33 million in funding. The round was led by Index Ventures and Cyberstarts, with investors also including entrepreneurs Mickey Boodaei (Imperva, Trusteer, Transmit), Rakesh Loonkar (Trusteer, Transmit), Assaf Rappaport, and Yinon Costica (Wiz, Adallom), as well as Cerca Partners and Knollwood Investment Advisory.

Founded in 2023 by Israel Duanis (CEO) and Niv Goldenberg (CPO), Linx Security emerged with a mission to redefine how organizations secure and manage identities across complex digital landscapes. Both Israel and Niv are experienced cybersecurity executives with proven track records spanning over 25 years. Before founding Linx, Israel co-founded Fleetonomy, a pioneering AI-driven fleet management solutions platform, which was acquired by Via in 2020 and led the threat prevention line of business at CheckPoint Security. Niv’s last role before co-founding the company was VP Product at Mickey Boodaei’s Transmit, which during Niv’s tenure doubled its ARR.

The 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) revealed that more than half of all breaches involve a human element, accounting for 68% of incidents. The 2024 Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) Report found that 84% of organizations have experienced an identity-related security breach, with 78% facing direct business impacts as a result. The recent Snowflake breach serves as a prime example of the potential damage, as hackers gained access to the accounts of up to 165 Snowflake customers by exploiting stolen customer credentials, possibly marking it one of the largest data breaches ever.

“Identity security is one of the urgent cybersecurity pain points organizations struggle to address in today’s fast-paced business environment," said Israel Duanis, CEO of Linx Security. "Our platform empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of identity security and governance with confidence, ensuring they stay ahead of evolving threats and regulatory requirements."

Linx Security's cutting-edge technology eliminates the blind spots and gaps inherent in traditional identity tools. Linx maps and monitors the relationships between users, their identities, and the access and permissions they have to company data and resources, and uses advanced identity analytics and automation to enable organizations to effortlessly shrink their attack surface, achieve compliance, and streamline operations across the entire lifecycle of users and identities. In one case, Linx detected ungoverned access to a client's code repository. By identifying all accounts and linking them to their human owners, Linx assessed each user's permissions and risk level. This revealed a former employee's unsecured access, which Linx promptly revoked, reducing the organization's attack surface and improving security.

"Identity is the top threat vector for the modern enterprise. Identity teams under the CISO are struggling to cope with a growing number of tasks and suffer from antiquated legacy solutions.  The highly motivated and accomplished Linx team will undoubtedly leverage their vast experience, creativity, and vision to tackle that" said Cyberstarts' Founder, Gili Raanan. "We are proud to partner with Israel and Niv from day zero, on their journey to build Linx".

"Linx Security represents a pivotal advancement in identity security solutions, poised to redefine how organizations safeguard their digital assets”. said Shardul Shah, Index Ventures Partner. “With a visionary leadership team and innovative technology, they are well-positioned to lead the industry in mitigating evolving cyber threats".

About Linx Security

Linx Security is at the forefront of transforming identity security with an innovative platform that addresses the limitations of traditional identity tools. By continuously minimizing the attack surface and mitigating compliance vulnerabilities, Linx Security helps organizations protect identities in real-time, aligned with the dynamic pace of business operations. Offering comprehensive visibility of all identities, along with advanced threat detection and automated identity risk remediation, Linx ensures effective identity management and governance. The platform's precise insights and actionable recommendations enhance security posture while streamlining operations.

For more information about Linx Security and its innovative solutions,
please visit www.linx.security