Israel Innovation 2.0

During the week of November 29, 2009 the biggest headline was IBM’s acquisition of database security and compliance company, Guardium. Dune was purchased by Broadcom and VMware is planning to double its workforce in Israel. For these stories and more, check below for this week’s 9 Israel-related headlines.

Cleantech
1. Capstone and Israel’s HelioFocus Get Grants To Fire Up Solar Powered Micro-Turbines

Investment
2. Broadcom To Acquire Dune For $178 Million

3. IBM buys database security firm Guardium

Information Technology
4. Thanks to Israel, ‘the Cloud’ will be safer

5. VMware doubles Israeli R&D workforce

5. Red Bend Software Named One of the Most Important Companies in M2M for 2010

Miscellaneous
7. Israeli firm Emblaze sues Apple claiming iPhone streaming ‘patent infringement’

8. Israeli tech firms are coming back home

9. Twitter, Amiando, Obopay, And Playfish Are Named Technology Pioneers By The World Economic Forum (Amobee and Innovid)

Sentrigo, an Israel-based database security software company, announced last week that it has become the sole distributor of Repscan by Red-Database-Security, “the only 360-degree database vulnerability assessment and security scanning software available for Oracle databases.”

The move helps Sentrigo solidify its hold on the database security market by complementing its Hedgehog database activity monitoring software with software that monitors and identifies Oracle database weaknesses and vulnerablities. In specific, Repscan can “detect insecure PL/SQL code and forensic traces; database modifications; insecure system configuration settings; and weak, shared and default passwords.”

Some main Repscan features include: 

• Report-driven penetration testing
• Altered data detection (privileged and user tables)
• Forensic trace discovery from common security and hacker tools
• Automatic conversion of the weaknesses found by Repscan into protection rules and policies in the Sentrigo Hedgehog Database Security Suite

According to Sentrigo’s website, Hedgehog Enterprise

“is for organizations that require breach prevention, end-user identification, virtual patching, integration with your existing security infrastructure, IT governance and operate with enterprise-wide database deployment.”

The software also

“provides full visibility into all database activity including local privileged access, protects the database in real-time with actionable alerts and prevention capabilities, and allows enterprises to enforce security policy and comply with regulatory requirements, such as PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, SAS 70 and HIPAA.”

As an aside, Oracle is currently in talks to purchase Sun Microsystems for over $7 billion and enter the hardware market.

The week of October 12th was surprisingly busy in Israel. Talk of how Israeli universities and colleges might not open this year due to funding continued, while a serious solution to the recent “brain drain” problem was proposed. Though darker days are still ahead for the U.S. and global economies and VCs and others are warning startups and entrepreneurs that they will have to do more with less, if any, funding, money is still out there for strong companies, such as Wix.com and MyThings.com. For links to these stories and the rest of the 15 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of October 12, 2008, check out the list below.

Cleantech/Environment
1.  Israeli funds look to clean technologies

2. JNF, El Salvador style

Investments, Trade and M&A
3. AquAgro invests $1.5 million in Transbiodiesel

4. MyThings Raises $5 Million to Help you Organize Your Stuff

5. Wix Gets Cash Infusion, Intros New Technology

6. Pawlenty will lead trade mission to Israel

Information Technology
7. Sentrigo Updates Hedgehog Software Addressing Oracle Database Security Vulnerabilities

8. Introducing ‘Enterprise Data Recording’ technology

9. Omniture Agrees to Acquire Mercado’s Site Search and Merchandising Business

10. Florida-based InkSure Technologies wins $800K grant

Miscellaneous
11. Connect One Releases World’s Smallest, Most Versatile Embedded WiFi Module

12. Israeli airport trials shoe-scanning technology

13. More Americans Vault Overseas to Search for Jobs

14. Boston: Israeli consul attempts to reverse brain drain

15. Good times R.I.P – The Israeli version

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

*About the Weekly Headlines image: The Star of David in the image was found on Flickr and is used under the Creative Commons license. It was originally uploaded by Flickr member, zeevveez. The overall Weekly Headlines image was designed by Lisa Damast.