Oculis Labs was honored to be selected as a finalist at the Global Corporate Venturing Tech Scout Challenge.    We were one of 14 innovative technology companies from around the world selected to present to some of the top corporate venture funds.    Judges at this year’s event include:

•  Mike Brown, Founder and Partner, AOL Ventures
•  Thorsten Piesl, Vice President, State Street
•  Alex McCracken, Director, Silicon Valley Bank
•  Steve Gibson, Partner, Euclid Opportunities
•  Veronique Hervouet, Total SA
•  Davorin Kuchan, Texas Instruments

Hunt Valley, Md. – May 7, 2012 – Oculis Labs, a developer of data privacy software that protects mobile and desktop computers from visual eavesdroppers, today released results from its “Government Worker Privacy” survey on privacy risks for mobile workers. 104 people were randomly surveyed at this year’s FOSE conference and exposition in Washington D.C., and of those surveyed, 62 percent are concerned about others looking at their displays while 63 percent admit to having looked at other people’s displays. And while it is no surprise that almost everyone (98 percent) claims that privacy is important to them, an astonishing 82 percent of government employees have no security system for protecting their computer screens.

The survey found that 69 percent of respondents use their computers in public places to view sensitive information. In fact, most respondents indicated they work with multiple types of sensitive information. Fifty-seven percent stated that they work with financial/credit card data; 18 percent work with For Official Use Only (FOUO) information (this is primarily used by the United States Department of Defense as a handling instruction for Controlled Unclassified Information); 18 percent work with human resources data and 19 percent work with classified information.

While protecting data on computers is top of mind for everyone, most organizations are focused on conventional security technologies such as anti-virus software, personal firewalls and spam filters. The WikiLeaks episode clearly revealed one crucial fact – the government did not have adequate protections on sensitive data, and the status quo of traditional security tools and official policy could not stop a breach. Besides tightening up controls on removable media, WikiLeaks underscores the need for the government to start looking at a system the way an attacker does – by looking for the weakest links. The majority of breaches are made through social engineering attacks that start with simple observation. Adversaries, especially insiders, start by observing computer screens surreptitiously to launch their attacks.

While most expect the government to operate in a much “safer” working environment, Oculis Labs found that both government and commercial organizations are about equal when it comes to data loss vulnerability. Late in 2011 the company executed a survey of mobile workers in the private sector that showed strikingly similar results to this government study. To see the results of the commercial survey visit: http://www.oculislabs.com/products/resources/mobile-worker-privacy-study/

“Preventing data leakage is a high priority for government and yet one of the easiest access points, the computer screen, is overlooked,” said Bill Anderson, CEO, Oculis Labs. “Over-the-shoulder reconnaissance reveals what is available, where it is, and who has access to it – all the ingredients an adversary needs to succeed at a data breach. Traditional tools for protecting screens are the ever-unpopular plastic privacy filters, but even if used they are ineffective at stopping a breach. All it takes is a direct view from behind the user to leak the data.  Clearly the government needs a more effective technology solution for securing displayed information.”

The results of the Oculis Labs Government Mobile Worker Privacy Survey are available free of charge at:

http://www.oculislabs.com/products/resources/government-worker-privacy-study

About Oculis Labs

Oculis Labs, headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, develops data privacy software that secures the last two feet of the Internet – the distance from the computer screen to a user’s eyes. The company’s products protect valuable information displayed on mobile and desktop computers from unintended viewers. Today the company offers PrivateEye for consumers and the enterprise and Chameleon for government and military users. These two solutions safeguard all displayed information from visual eavesdropping. For more information, visit www.oculislabs.com.

To download a 30-day free trial of PrivateEye visit: http://www.privateeyeenterprise.com/free-evaluation/

Media Contact:

Molly Doyle

Welz and Weisel Communications

(703) 218-3555

molly@w2comm.com

Today we’re releasing the results of our second worker privacy study, this time to focus specifically on Government users.  We interviewed 104 people at the 2012 FOSE conference in Washington D.C. to determine usage and risk to documents in government offices.  The results revealed that Official Use, sensitive, and even classified documents are just as unprotected in the government space as were documents in private industry. Government workers regularly access sensitive documents in areas where other people can look at their screens, and the vast majority (82%) have no display security.

We found the top data types exposed in public places to be:

1. Financial/ Credit card data (57 percent)
2. Classified and FOUO (47 percent)
3. Personal Information (SSNs, Medical, Human Resources) (44 percent)
4. Proprietary / Trade Secret (18 percent)

Information security is a top priority for government IT in the post-WikiLeaks world.  Government IT decision makers need to take a fresh look at their vulnerabilities and choose affordable solutions that can secure the weakest links.

Download the Oculis Labs Government Worker Privacy Survey here.

New End-User Benefits Include Near Real-Time Privacy Protection, Tighter Integration with Windows 7 Central Controls and Power Savings 

Baltimore, MD – April 30, 2012 – Oculis Labs, a developer of data privacy software that protects mobile and desktop computers from visual eavesdroppers, today announced the immediate availability of PrivateEye Enterprise 4.0, the industry’s only solution that proactively protects data on computer displays. This solution is built specifically to protect enterprise and government customers’ data, especially those in regulated industries or with specific need-to-know privacy policies. PrivateEye Enterprise protects data from eavesdroppers by using facial detection and recognition to obscure the screen when the privileged user is not present or when eavesdroppers attempt to view the display. Importantly, it has group policy-based, central management features which allow it to be deployed and managed easily by IT departments.

 This major version of PrivateEye incorporates “must-have” requirements as identified by Oculis Labs enterprise customers, including:

• Instant Protection. PrivateEye Enterprise protects and clears the screen almost instantaneously, ensuring both security and user productivity.

• Discrete Operation.  With faster and more accurate face detection, PrivateEye Enterprise runs in a wide variety of lighting conditions from airports to coffee shops. Users will not notice it is there until they need it.

• Eyes on the Big Picture.  Significantly easier to use with a simplified user interface, a streamlined wizard, and automated intelligence that adapts to learn about the user. PrivateEye Enterprise takes care of itself and lets the user stay focused on work.

• Manage, Control and Comply.  Tighter integration with Windows 7 central controls, including standard domain password integration, easy password resets, and deeper security controls. The IT department will save time and money with self-service password resets, and gain better control through central management and incident notification.

• Save Power and Money.  Laptop batteries will last longer, and organizations will save money by running greener with lower total power consumption.

• Constant Security, No Exceptions.  Users do not need to pause PrivateEye when in full-screen presentation mode. It now auto-detects and resumes when the user is done.  PrivateEye Enterprise can now run all of the time for its mobile employees, no exceptions, no accidental data leaks.

According to a recent survey of employees of financial services companies, consulting firms, engineering contractors, and government agencies, over 90 percent of respondents were concerned about data privacy yet 89 percent had no safeguards in place to protect them from visual data breaches. Unprotected information these users accessed included financial data, credit card information, social security numbers, proprietary intellectual property, and even classified data.

 “PrivateEye Enterprise 4.0 is an unparalleled advance in data privacy protection that secures the last two feet of the network: from the display to the user’s eyes,” said Bill Anderson, founder and CEO of Oculis Labs. “We are able to protect enterprise computer screens from unintentional data leakage while ensuring full user productivity. Organizations that need to comply with data privacy regulations now have a new tool to secure, detect, and respond to real-world threats.”

Further information about PrivateEye, including a free trial download and video, is available at www.privateeyeenterprise.com or from the company’s website www.oculislabs.com.

About Oculis Labs

Oculis Labs, headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, develops data privacy software that secures the last two feet of the network – the distance from the computer screen to a user’s eyes. The company’s products protect valuable information displayed on mobile and desktop computers from unintended viewers. Supported in part by an investment from In-Q-Tel, the company has strong relationships with the government community as well as partnerships with large OEMs.  Oculis Lab’s technology is being deployed across a wide-array of mobile enterprises including those in government, financial services, health care and the high-tech industry. Oculis’ Labs’ products are available for purchase on the federal GSA schedule www.carahsoft.com.  For more information, visit www.oculislabs.com or call (410) 809-1701.

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Media Contact:

Evan Weisel

Welz & Weisel Communications

P: 703-877-8100

evan@w2comm.com

We’re excited to tell you about a major new release of PrivateEye Enterprise.  This full upgrade has a lot of new features and improvements driven by customer requests, as well as core advances in security and performance.  With customers around the world ranging from health clinics and banks to government agencies we know our customers like the product, but there is always room for improvement. In this major upgrade we have focused on the must-have requirements for the enterprise:

1. Instant Protection. PrivateEye protects and clears the screen almost instantaneously, ensuring both security and user productivity.
2. Discrete Operation. With faster and more accurate face detection PrivateEye 4.0 runs in a wide variety of lighting conditions from airports to coffee shops.  Users will not notice it’s there until they need it.
3. Eyes on the Big Picture.  Significantly easier to use with a simplified UI, a streamlined wizard, and automated intelligence that adapts to learn about the user,  PrivateEye 4.0 takes care of itself and lets the user stay focused on his work.
4. Manage, Control and Comply.  Tighter integration with Windows 7 central controls, including standard domain password integration, easy password resets, and deeper security controls.  Your IT department will save time and money with self-service password resets, and get better control through central management and incident notification.
5. Save Power and Money.  Your mobile users will thank you when their laptop battery lasts longer, and your organization will save money by running greener with a lower total power consumption.
6. Constant Security, No Exceptions.  No need to pause PrivateEye when you go full-screen for a presentation.  It now auto-detects and resumes when you’re done. PrivateEye can rema
   in on all the time for your mobile employees, no exceptions, no accidental data leaks.

You’ll notice a number of improvements with a streamlined GUI that makes setup and use a lot easier.  The setup wizard, for instance, takes just a few clicks, and then starts rapidly learning so that new users get optimal performance within the first few minutes.

The best way to see the improvements is to just to try it for yourself.  PrivateEye Enterprise 3.0 customers can just download and run the installer, and your license will automatically convert to the new version.  Our support team (support@oculislabs.com) will figure it out for you if you have any issues. Of course, if you’ve tried the evaluation version in the past but wanted to see a bit more performance this is the release for you!  Get it right now and start securing your enterprise privacy.

If you’re looking to understand why display protection is such an important (and often missing) component of your security system, please take a break and check out this video:

Named Best New Security Start-Up of the Year

Hunt Valley, Md. – March 6, 2012– Oculis Labs, a developer of data privacy software that protects mobile and desktop computers from visual eavesdroppers, today announced it has been selected as the Best New Security Start-Up Company of the Year in the 2012 Global Excellence Awards. Hosted by Info Security Products Guide, this awards program honors excellence in the information security industry highlighting extraordinary people, products and companies. More than 50 judges from a broad spectrum of international industry voices participated to determine the 2012 Global Excellence Awards finalists and winners.

Oculis Labs delivers software designed to protect computer users from unauthorized “over-the-shoulder eavesdroppers” – securing the last two feet of the Internet. While protecting data on computers is top of mind for most, vendors and end-users remain focused on conventional security technologies such as anti-virus software, personal firewalls and spam filters. Computer displays remain an unprotected frontier, displaying personal, proprietary, and regulated information. Oculis Labs helps mobile consumers, enterprise and government customers protect those digital assets. In contrast to screen savers and plastic filters, the company’s products actively protect information against exposure and produce a positive audit trail showing proof-of-compliance to meet growing privacy and insider threat concerns.

The company offers PrivateEye for consumers and the enterprise and Chameleon for government and military users – enabling users to read confidential or classified information in a crowded room safely, without passive plastic screen filters or special viewing equipment.

• PrivateEye addresses the 400 million computers with webcams today, a market increasing at 37% per year according to research firm IDC. The software protects the data on computers used by CEOs, CFOs, auditors, consultants, lawyers, doctors, investigators, and HR personnel seeking greater data privacy and protection against insider threats. PrivateEye presents a normal clear screen when the user is present and looking at the display, but when the user’s attention moves away from the display the software immediately blurs the screen. Similarly, if it detects an eavesdropper it can automatically blur the screen or alert the user. PrivateEye also complies with the 2010 federal computer fraud and abuse statute that recently expanded the legal definition of computer trespassing to include information gained by looking at a computer screen that an individual is not authorized to view.

• Chameleon addresses the current government market of 4.2 million users working with sensitive and classified materials as well as many large untapped new markets including multi-agency or multi-national facilities, embassies and consulates, command centers, tactical forward bases, and in-field mobile personnel where information is available on a need to know basis. Chameleon is significantly less expensive and more flexible than traditional options, and it solves the unmet need of protecting data in the field against electronic or physical surveillance and insider espionage threats.

“In the current mobile age, companies and government organizations need innovative and reliable privacy solutions they can count on to protect them no matter where and when they need to work,” said Bill Anderson, CEO, Oculis Labs. “This award recognizes our dedication to providing the industry with unique products that address a security threat that is pervasive across all computer users. Content that appears on a computer screen is vulnerable and must be protected. Simply put, we solve this problem in a manner that is cost effective and technologically sound.”

About Info Security Products Guide

Info Security Products Guide sponsors leading conferences and expos worldwide and plays a vital role in keeping end-users informed of the choices they can make when it comes to protecting their digital resources. It is written expressly for those who are adamant on staying informed of security threats and the preventive measure they can take. You will discover a wealth of information in this guide including tomorrow’s technology today, best deployment scenarios, people and technologies shaping info security and market research that facilitate in making the most pertinent security decisions. The Info Security Products Guide Awards recognize and honor excellence in all areas of information security. To learn more, visit www.infosecurityproductsguide.com and stay secured.

About Oculis Labs

Oculis Labs, headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, develops data privacy software that secures the last two feet of the Internet – the distance from the computer screen to a user’s eyes. The company’s products protect valuable information displayed on mobile and desktop computers from unintended viewers. Today the company offers PrivateEye for consumers and the enterprise and Chameleon for government and military users. These two solutions safeguard all displayed information from visual eavesdropping. For more information, visit www.oculislabs.com.

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Media Contact:

Evan Weisel

Welz and Weisel Communications

(703) 218-3555

evan@w2comm.com

If you’re out there too, contact us to arrange a meeting and demonstration of both PrivateEye and Chameleon.  Email info@oculislabs.com to schedule.

Click here for the whitepaper.

Last month I was invited to participate in the launch of the Dutch National Cybersecurity Center in the Hague. Our host was KPN, the leading telecommunications and IT service provider in The Netherlands. KPN Corporate Market (previously known as Getronics) offers global IT services and is particularly focused on delivering cloud-based services to their customers.

We were fortunate to be included in a set of live demonstrations by a new consortium of security companies pulled together by KPN called the Dutch Cloud Initiative.   KPN has a unique and strong vision of “the new work”  as the Dutch put it, where employees are free to work anywhere, reducing environmental impact, travel time, and office costs,  while increasing employee satisfaction and productivity.    The key to the system is not just a robust cloud application architecture but an integrated security architecture that supports productivity while ensuring security in these much broader and more challenging distributed working environments.

It’s a really non-trivial exercise to figure out how to deliver reliable services to millions of workers, many of whom are handing sensitive proprietary and government secret documents.  Still, the Dutch have a long history of well-planned, well-executed complex projects that just have to succeed.   Dutch culture tends to value careful and serious planning, consideration of many possible variables and worst-case scenarios, and of involving large groups of people in designing, evaluation and implementing these kinds of solutions.  A country that took back significant fractions of its landmass from the sea and must remain constantly vigilant to protect it’s below-sea-level infrastructure can teach us a thing or two about long-term planning.

Oculis Labs fits into the cloud equation extremely well because the cloud extends traditional office work well outside traditional boundaries.  There are no walls an organization can rely on to protect information on-screen, and it does not matter how much money you spend on disk encryption and VPNs if your secrets are on display for anyone to read on the train, the coffee shop, or the home office.

I’m looking forward to my next trip back to the Netherlands when I’ll be meeting with some new partners and customers.