SafeNet, Inc. was an

information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...

company based in Belcamp, Maryland,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, which was acquired in August 2014 by the French security company

Gemalto Gemalto was an international digital security company providing software applications, secure personal devices such as smart cards and tokens, e-wallets and managed services. It was formed in June 2006 by the merger of two companies, Axalto and ...

. Gemalto was, in turn, acquired by

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

in 2019. The former SafeNet's products include solutions for enterprise authentication,

data encryption In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plai ...

, and

key management Key management refers to management of Key (cryptography), cryptographic keys in a cryptosystem. This includes dealing with the generation, exchange, storage, use, crypto-shredding (destruction) and replacement of keys. It includes cryptographic ...

. SafeNet's software monetization products are sold under the Thales Sentinel brand. SafeNet was notably one of the largest suppliers of encryption technology to the

United States Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

. On 8 August 2014, Gemalto announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the

share capital A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. ''Share ...

of SafeNet from Vector Capital for US$890 million on a debt free/cash free basis. A subsequent acquisition of Gemalto by French rival

was completed on 2 April 2019.

History

* 1983: SafeNet, Inc is founded in 1983 in Timonium, MD as Industrial Resource Engineering by two former NSA engineers, Alan Hastings and Douglas Kozlay. * 1986: Anthony A. Caputo becomes a silent investor in the company. * 1987: Anthony Caputo takes the helm of the company as CEO and changes the name to Information Resource Engineering. * 1988: Lawrence Livermore Labs becomes IRE's first major customer. The company moves its operations to White Marsh, MD. * 1989: IRE goes public in an

IPO 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 ...

initially trading on the OTC pink sheets. * 1989: IRE rapidly becomes the leader in banking communications security with seven of the top ten U.S. banks as customers and encryption devices used by

SWIFT Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

(global interbank transfer system). An

end-to-end encryption End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of implementing a secure communication system where only communicating users can participate. No one else, including the system provider, telecom providers, Internet providers or malicious actors, can ...

system was developed that secured data over an

X.25 X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for Packet switched network, packet-switched data communication in wide area network, wide area networks (WAN). It was originally defined by the CCITT, International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Co ...

public network, providing the world's first "virtual private network." Early adopters included the

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (, ), abbreviated as BMO (pronounced ), is a Canadian multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank, making it Canada ...

and

Citibank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for "National bank (United States), National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation, multinational corporation. Ci ...

. * 1994: IRE acquires Connective Strategies, Inc., a manufacturer of voice and data

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. ...

products founded by its CEO, Charles Brown. * October 1995: IRE acquires Swiss crypto manufacturer Gretag Data Systems for $4 million. * 1996:

MCI Communications MCI Communications Corporation (originally Microwave Communications, Inc.) was an American telecommunications company headquartered in Washington, D.C. that was at one point the second-largest long-distance provider in the United States. ...

launches the first commercial VPN service using SafeNet VPN technology developed by Charles Brown of SafeNet and Vinton Cerf of MCI. SafeNet is adopted by thirteen of the top fifteen U.S. banks within two years. * 1997: IRE stock plunges 50% in one day on the announcement of the restructuring of the MCI contract. * July 1998: Major

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

fails in a

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...

attempt of IRE. * 2000: IRE is renamed SafeNet, Inc. after the VPN product line. * 2001: Company co-founder Doug Kozlay leaves SafeNet to form Biometric Associates, a technology company focused on

biometric Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics and features. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used t ...

-based authentication and identity solutions. * 2002: SafeNet acquires a Dutch company Securealink. With the collapse of the tech "bubble," SafeNet, as a public company with a strong sales channel, was able to acquire a series of promising security companies at deep discounts. * February 2003: SafeNet acquires Cylink and Raqia Networks * October 2003: SafeNet acquires the OEM business of SSH Communications Security * November 2003: SafeNet moves its corporate offices to Belcamp, MD. * March 2004: SafeNet acquires Rainbow Technologies. * December 2004: SafeNet acquires Datakey, Inc * April 2005: SafeNet acquires DMDSecure B.V. * June 2005: SafeNet acquires

MediaSentry MediaSentry was a United States company that provided services to the music recording, motion picture, television, and software industries for locating and identifying IP addresses that are engaged in the use of online networks to share material in ...

* December 2005: SafeNet acquires Eracom Technologies AG * 2006: SafeNet was involved in the

options backdating In finance, options backdating is the practice of altering the date a stock option was granted, to a usually earlier (but sometimes later) date at which the underlying stock price was lower. This is a way of repricing options to make them more v ...

controversy. As a result, both the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and the

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

resigned, and in 2008 the company's former CFO was sentenced to six months in prison for manipulating employee

stock options In finance, an option is a contract which conveys to its owner, the ''holder'', the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific quantity of an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price on or before a specified dat ...

. * April 2007: California-based financial company Vector Capital buys Safenet for $634 million, making it private * April 2008: SafeNet acquires Ingrian Networks, Inc. * May 2008: SafeNet acquires Beep Science AS * March 2009: SafeNet parent company, Vector Capital acquires Aladdin Knowledge Systems * April 2009: SafeNet sells

to ArtistDirect * December 2009: SafeNet acquires Assured Decisions, LLC * December 2012: SafeNet sells its Government Solutions business unit to

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

* August 2014: SafeNet announces it is to be acquired by

by the 4Q of 2014'' * February 2015: SafeNet Assured Technologies is launched as a fully owned subsidiary of

to provide high-assurance data security products and technologies to the U.S. Government. * April 2019:

closes the acquisition of

. Thales Cloud Protection and Licensing were formed to serve the global community, and SafeNet Assured Technologies, the entity serving the U.S. Government, becomes Thales Trusted Cyber Technologies.

Current and former subsidiaries

The former Rainbow Technologies subsidiary SafeNet Government Solutions, formerly SafeNet Mykotronx, is still based in

Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...

with offices in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...

and

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a planned community in Howard County, Maryland, United States, consisting of 10 self-contained villages. With a population of 104,681 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most-populous community in Maryland ...

. The company was founded in 1979 as Myko Enterprises. It changed its name to Mykotronx, Inc in 1987 and merged with SafeNet as part of the SafeNet merger with Rainbow in 2004. SafeNet Government Solutions, LLC has been operationally merged into SafeNet and the lines between the two organizations have been intentionally blurred due to financial reasons. SafeNet Government Solutions is no longer considered a subsidiary. SafeNet Government Solutions provides

and

communications security Communications security is the discipline of preventing unauthorized interceptors from accessing telecommunications in an intelligible form, while still delivering content to the intended recipients. In the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ...

technology for the US government. The firm has an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for its KIV-7 line of

commercial off-the-shelf Commercial-off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...

cryptographic Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More gen ...

devices that provide protection for digital and voice communications through

TOP SECRET Classified information is confidential material that a government deems to be sensitive information which must be protected from unauthorized disclosure that requires special handling and dissemination controls. Access is restricted by law or ...

, used by agencies such as the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA) and the

National Reconnaissance Office The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. f ...

. Other products include the KOV-14 Fortezza Plus PC card which was developed as part of the NSA's NSSI program and is used on Secure Terminal Equipment. They previously developed the Clipper chip. In 2009, Vector Capital acquires Aladdin Knowledge Systems, and placed it under SafeNet with the annotation of 'under common management'. In 2010, the two companies were officially merged.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://cpl.thalesgroup.com/access-management/safenet-trusted-access
U.S. Subsidiary Website
American companies established in 1983 American companies disestablished in 2014 Software companies established in 1983 Software companies established in 2014 Defunct software companies of the United States Computer security software companies Copyright enforcement companies Cryptography companies Software companies based in Maryland 1983 establishments in Maryland 2014 disestablishments in Maryland 2014 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies