__FORCETOC__
Blue Coat Systems, Inc., was a company that provided hardware, software, and services designed for
cybersecurity
Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...
and network management. In 2016, it was acquired by and folded into
Symantec. In 2019 was, as part of Symantec Enterprise division, sold to
Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...
.
The company was known as CacheFlow until 2002.
The company had "a broad security portfolio including hardware, software and services." The company was best known for web gateway appliances that scan internet traffic for security threats, authenticate users and manage encrypted traffic, as well as products to monitor and filter employee internet activity.
[ It also produced consumer products, such as parental control software. The company's products were initially sold to ]internet service providers
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...
, but later products were intended for large companies.[
]
History
In March 1996, the company was founded as CacheFlow, Inc. in Redmond, Washington
Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010.
Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America.
With an an ...
by Michael Malcolm, a computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
and professor at the University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
, Joe Pruskowski, and Doug Crow. The company initially raised $1 million in seed money
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...
from a dozen angel investor
An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...
s.
The company's goal was to develop appliances that would increase website speed by storing frequently accessed web data in the cache
Cache, caching, or caché may refer to:
Places United States
* Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County
* Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah
* Cache Count ...
.[
In October 1996, ]Benchmark Capital
Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups.
History
The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company. In 2011, it invested $12 mill ...
purchased 25% of the company for $2.8 million, equivalent to a price of 87.5 cents per share.[ By February 1997, the company had raised $5.1 million. In December 1997, ]U.S. Venture Partners
U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a venture capital investment firm specializing in early-stage ventures in enterprise software, cybersecurity, consumer, e-commerce, healthcare, and IT-enabled healthcare services. The venture capital partnership ...
acquired 17% of the company for $6 million.[
In 1997, the company moved its headquarters to ]Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
.
In January 1998, the company released its first product, the CacheFlow 1000. It cached website objects that users were likely to use repeatedly, to increase load speed. In October 1999, the CacheOS operating system was released.
In April 1998, the company released the CacheFlow 100.
In mid-1998, during the dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
, the company made its first sales, earning just $809,000 over three months, and investors started pushing for an initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
(IPO).[
In March 1999, ]Technology Crossover Ventures
TCMI, Inc. better known by the name TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) is an American investment firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm mainly invests in public and private growth-stage companies in the technology industry.
Background ...
invested $8.7 million for 7% of the company, equivalent to a price of $4.575 per share.
In September 1999, the company released the CacheFlow 500, with a list price of $9,995. A competitive review of caching appliances in ''PC Magazine
''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...
'' gave the CacheFlow 500 Editor's Choice. The editor said it had "excellent performance", a "plug-and-go" setup, and "good management tools". The review noted that its "most noteworthy features" were its DNS caching and object pipelining techniques, which allowed page data to be delivered in parallel, rather than sequential, streams.[
In early November 1999, ]Marc Andreessen
Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon ...
invested $3.1 million in shares, at a price of $11.04 per share.[
On November 19, 1999, during the peak of the ]dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
, the company became a public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
via an initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
, raising $132 million. Shares rose fivefold on its first day of trading. However, the company was not profitable and its product was unproven. At that time, the company had $3.6 million in revenue and $6.6 million in losses in the prior 3 months.[ The company had initially hoped to price its shares at $11-13 each and raise $50 million but due to strong demand, it priced its shares at $26 each. One month later, they traded as high as $182 each.][
In 1999, ]board of directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
member Andrew Rachleff of Benchmark Capital
Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups.
History
The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company. In 2011, it invested $12 mill ...
, an investor, brought in Brian NeSmith
Brian NeSmith is an American technology entrepreneur. He is currently the CEO of Arctic Wolf Networks, a network security startup he founded in 2012. Prior to Arctic Wolf, Brian served as president and CEO of Blue Coat Systems, which he helped ta ...
, who had just sold his company, Ipsilon Networks
Ipsilon Networks was a computer networking company which specialised in IP switching during the 1990s.
The first product called the IP Switch ATM 1600 was announced in March 1996 for US$46,000.
Its switch used Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) hard ...
, to Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
for $120 million, as chief executive officer.[
In 2000, it introduced the CacheFlow Server Accelerator product family, which offloads content delivery tasks from web servers. Tests by '']Network World
International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.’s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technol ...
'' found the Server Accelerator 725 increased website load speed eight-fold. The CacheFlow Client Accelerator 600 product family was also introduced in 2000. It was the company's first product family for corporate networks, caching Web or multimedia content directly on the corporate network.
Revenues grew from $7 million in 1998, to $29 million in 1999 and $97 million in 2001. It already had 25% of the overall market for caching and 35% of the caching appliance market [ and was still not profitable.][
In March 2000, the company integrated its products with those of ]Akamai Technologies
Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an American content delivery networkJ. Dilley, B. Maggs, J. Parikh, H. Prokop, R. Sitaraman, and B. Weihl. (CDN), cybersecurity, and cloud service company, providing web and Internet security services. Akamai's Inte ...
.
In May 2000, the company updated CacheFlow OS to cache multimedia content, including RealNetworks' RealSystem, Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
's Windows Media Windows Media is a discontinued multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit (SDK) with several application programming interfaces (API) and a number of prebuilt technolo ...
and Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
's Quicktime
QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...
formats.
In June 2000, the company acquired Springbank Networks, an internet device company, for $180 million.
In December 2000, the company acquired Entera, a digital content streaming company, for $440 million.
In 2001, new features specifically for streaming media were introduced under the name "cIQ".[
Later in 2001, the company was renamed to Blue Coat Systems to focus on security appliances and simultaneously released the SG800. The appliance sat behind corporate firewalls to filter website traffic for ]viruses
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
, worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
**Worms (electoral district)
*Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy
Arts and entertainme ...
and other harmful software. It had a custom operating system called Security Gateway and provided many of its security features through partners, like Symantec and Trend Micro
is an American-Japanese multinational cyber security software company with global headquarters in Tokyo, Japan and Irving, Texas, United State.Other regional headquarters and R&D centers are located around East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and ...
.
The company lost 97% of its value from October 2000 to March 2001 as the dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
burst. The company continued to lose money.[ By 2002, several competing internet caching companies had abandoned the market, due to slow adoption of caching technology and most of CacheFlow's revenues came from its IT security products.][
In February 2002, the company closed its Redmond, WA office and laid off about 60 workers there. Around a dozen Redmond workers were offered transfers to the Sunnyvale, CA office.
In April 2002, the company launched fifth version of its operating system. The Security Gateway 600/6000 Series was the company's newest product family. It had a range of security features, such as authentication, internet use policies, virus scanning, content filtering, and bandwidth restrictions for streaming video applications.
In August 2002, the company started adding IT security features.
Also in August 2002, the company changed its name to Blue Coat Systems. The new name was intended to evoke the image of a police officer or guard.][ It then focusing on ]internet security
Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules a ...
appliances.[ Its products were primarily used to control, monitor and secure internet use by employees. For example, a company could limit employee access to online gaming and video streaming, as well as scan attachments for viruses.
The shift in focus was followed by smaller losses and revenues at first][ and eventually company growth. Losses in 2002 after the rename were $247 million, about half of the prior year's losses.
By 2003, the company had 250 employees and $150 million in annual revenue.
In 2003, 3 new products were introduced for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with 50, 100 or 250 users in bundles with ]Websense
Forcepoint, an United States, American multinational corporation software company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that develops computer security software and Information privacy, data protection, cloud access security broker, Firewall (computing) ...
; and Secure Computing
Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) was a public company that developed and sold computer security appliances and hosted services to protect users and data. McAfee acquired the company in 2008.
The company also developed filtering systems used ...
, although the Websense partnership was later at least partially dismantled and the two vendors were "slinging mud at each other" in the VAR community. This was followed by a second generation of the ProxySG product family, which added security features for instant messaging. A review in ''eWeek
''eWeek'' (''Enterprise Newsweekly'', stylized as ''eWEEK''), formerly PCWeek, is a technology and business magazine. Previously owned by QuinStreet; Nashville, Tennessee marketing company TechnologyAdvice acquired eWeek in 2020.
The print edi ...
'' said the new ProxySG line was effective and easy to deploy, but the ongoing maintenance fees were expensive.
In October 2003, the company acquired Ositis Software, maker of antivirus appliances, for $1.36 million.
In July 2004, the company acquired Cerberian, a URL filtering company, for $17.5 million.
In 2005, the company introduced an anti-spyware appliance called Spyware Interceptor and the following year it announced upcoming WAN optimization products. This was followed by SSL-VPN security appliances to secure remote connections.
In 2005, the company was profitable for the first time.[
In 2006, the company introduced a free web-tool, ]K9 Web Protection
K9 Web Protection is discontinued content-control software developed by Blue Coat Systems. In 2016, K9 Web Protection was acquired by Symantec as part of the company's purchase of Blue Coat Systems.
In April 2019, Symantec announced that K9 Web P ...
, that can monitor internet traffic, block certain websites, identify phishing scams. In a November 2008 review, ''PC World
''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication.
It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...
'' gave it 4.25 out of 5 stars.
In March 2006, the company acquired Permeo Technologies, an end point security company, for $60 million.
In June 2006, the company acquired NetCache assets from NetApp
NetApp, Inc. is an American hybrid cloud data services and data management company headquartered in San Jose, California. It has ranked in the Fortune 500 from 2012–2021. Founded in 1992 with an IPO in 1995, NetApp offers cloud data services ...
, which were involved in proxy caching, for $30 million.
In June 2008, the company acquired Packeteer, engaged in WAN optimization, for $268 million.
In 2009, the company introduced a plugin for PacketShaper to throttle applications such as Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
. A review of the PacketShaper 12000 in ''IT Pro'' gave it four out of five stars. The review said that "you won't find superior WAN traffic management anywhere else," but "the hardware platform could be more up to date considering the price."
In November 2009, the company went through a restructuring that included layoffs of 280 of its 1,500 employees and the closing of facilities in Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
, New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
and the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
.
In February 2010, the company acquired S7 Software Solutions, an IT research and development firm based in Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
, for $5.25 million.
In August 2010, Michael J. Borman was named president and CEO of the company.
In August 2011, CEO Michael Borman was fired for failing to meet performance goals and was replaced with Greg Clark
Gregory David Clark (born 28 August 1967) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities from 7 July 2022 to 6 September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Member of Pa ...
.
In December 2011, Thoma Cressey Bravo
Thoma Bravo, LP, is an American private equity and growth capital firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring software companies and has over $114 billion in assets under managem ...
acquired the company for $1.3 billion.
In March 2012, David Murphy was named chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...
and president of the company.
In December 2012, the company acquired Crossbeam Systems, maker of the X-Series of security appliances.
In May 2013, the company acquired Solera Networks, involved in big data security.
In December 2013, the company acquired Norman Shark, an anti malware firm.
In 2014, Elastica's technology was incorporated into Blue Coat products, with its Audit subscription service being merged into the Blue Coat Appfeed in the ProxySG gateways.
In June 2015, the company acquired Perspecsys, involved in cloud security.
Also in March 2015, the company integrated technologies from its acquisitions of Norman Shark and Solera Networks to create a cloud-based product family called the Global Intelligence Network.
Also in March 2015, the company pressured security researcher Raphaël Rigo into canceling his talk at SyScan '15. Although Raphaël's talk did not contain any information about vulnerabilities on the ProxySG platform, the company still cited concerns that the talk was going to "provide information useful to the ongoing security assessments of ProxySG by Blue Coat." The canceling of the talk was met with harsh criticism by various prominent security researchers and professionals alike who generally welcome technical information about various security products that are widely used.
In March 2015, Bain Capital
Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...
acquired the company from Thoma Bravo for $2.4 billion. Bain indicated that it hoped to launch another IPO and several months later, anonymous sources said the company was looking for investment banks for that purpose.
In August 2015, the company launched the Alliance Ecosystem of Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to share information about IT security threats across vendors and companies. Its first channel program was started that March and the Cloud Ready Partner Program was announced the following April.
In November 2015, the company acquired Elastica, involved in cloud security, for $280 million.
By 2015, the company had $200 million in annual profits and about $600 million in revenues, a 50% increase from 2011.
On June 2, 2016, the company once again filed plans for an initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
. However, on June 13, 2016, the company abandoned its IPO plans and announced that Symantec agreed to acquire the company for $4.65 billion. The acquisition was completed on August 1, 2016 and the company's products were integrated into those of Symantec.
Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark
Gregory David Clark (born 28 August 1967) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities from 7 July 2022 to 6 September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Member of Pa ...
was named CEO of Symantec and Blue Coat COO Michael Fey was named president and COO of Symantec.
Use by repressive regimes
Blue Coat devices are what is known as a "dual-use" technology, because they can be used both to defend corporate networks and by governments to censor and monitor the public's internet traffic. The appliances can see some types of encrypted traffic, block websites or record website traffic.[
In October 2011, the U.S. government examined claims made by ]Telecomix
Telecomix is a decentralized cluster of net activists, committed to the freedom of expression and is a name used by both WeRebuild and Telecomix. WeRebuild is a collaborative project used to propose and discuss laws as well as to collect informa ...
, a hacktivist
In Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism (a portmanteau of '' hack'' and '' activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in h ...
group, that Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
was using Blue Coat Systems products for internet censorship
Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Inte ...
. Telecomix released 54GB of log data alleged to have been taken from 7 Blue Coat web gateway appliances that depict search terms, including "Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
" and "proxy
Proxy may refer to:
* Proxy or agent (law), a substitute authorized to act for another entity or a document which authorizes the agent so to act
* Proxy (climate), a measured variable used to infer the value of a variable of interest in climate re ...
", that were blocked in the country using the appliances. The company later acknowledged that its systems were being used in Syria, but asserted the equipment was sold to intermediaries in Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
for use by an Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
i governmental agency.[
Despite the systems consistently sending "heartbeat" pings directly back to Blue Coat, the company claimed not to be monitoring the logs to identify from which country an appliance is communicating.][ Blue Coat announced that it would halt providing updates, support and other services for systems operating in Syria.][ In April 2013, the ]Bureau of Industry and Security
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that deals with issues involving national security and high technology. A principal goal for the bureau is helping stop the proliferation of weapo ...
announced a $2.8 million civil settlement with Computerlinks FZCO, a Dubai reseller, for violations of the Export Administration Regulations
The Export Administration Regulations (EAR) are a set of regulations found a15 C.F.R. § 730 ''et seq'' They are administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is part of the US Commerce Department. The EAR regulates export and expor ...
related to the transfer to Syria of Blue Coat products.[
The company's devices were also used to block the public from viewing certain websites in ]Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
, Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
, and U.A.E.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
, among others. By 2013, Citizen Lab
The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Canada. It was founded by Ronald Deibert in 2001. The laboratory studies information controls that impact the openness ...
had published 3 reports regarding the company's devices being found in countries known for using technology to violate human rights.[ It identified 61 countries using Blue Coat devices, including those known for censoring and surveilling their citizens' internet activity, such as ]China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, and Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
.[ However, "it remains unclear exactly how the technologies are being used, but experts say the tools could empower repressive governments to spy on opponents."][
]
See also
* Kaleidescape
Kaleidescape, Inc. is an American multimedia company based in Mountain View, California. Founded in 2001, it designs multi-room home entertainment server systems that store and play back video and audio content (such as movies, television shows ...
References
{{Dot-com Bubble
1996 establishments in Washington (state)
1999 initial public offerings
2016 mergers and acquisitions
Business ethics
Software companies established in 1996
Software companies disestablished in 2016
Cyber-arms companies
Computer security software companies
Content-control software
Defunct software companies of the United States
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Dot-com bubble
International information technology consulting firms
Server appliance
Gen Digital acquisitions