Public Relations

Karamba's Connected Device Security Solution “Karamba XGuard CFI” Awarded Judges Special Prize at Interop Tokyo 2019
-Function to protect memory in IoT devices from code injection judged highly-

June 17, 2019
Asgent, Inc.
(JASDAQ: 4288)

  Asgent, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4288, President & CEO: Takahiro Sugimoto, located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a pioneer in network security, announces that “Karamba XGuard CFI”, the connected device security solution that it distributes has been awarded the Judges Special Prize in the Security Division of the Best of Show Awards at Interop Tokyo 2019.

[Best of Show Award]
  Interop Tokyo is the largest domestic event focused on internet technology, having been held since 1994. The Best of Show Awards are awards given to “this year’s superior product”, as chosen from a selection of new products entered in the competition by exhibitors and chosen by a judging panel comprising key persons from major media outlets and intellectuals from the academic and scientific fields. The awards are decided by a finalist panel from out of close to 300 entries.
  Karamba XGuard CFI's CFI (Control Flow Integrity*: technology to insert code that validates function calls and return addresses into the program) functionality was judged highly, leading to the award. While many CFI products check the legitimacy of function calls, this product is capable of preventing in-memory attacks by also checking the legitimacy of both function calls and return addresses. In IoT devices and connected cars with limited resources, minimization of resources and low performance impact is essential. The reason why Karamba has such overwhelming support from many automobile manufacturers and Tier-1 providers, as well as IoT device makers is precisely because resources and performance impact can be kept to a minimum in preventing in-memory attacks.

[Karamba XGuard CFI]
  Karamba's XGuard Integrity detects modification attempts on ECUs, and is an autonomous security solution capable of preventing any illegitimate behavior on the ECU. Currently, over 30 automobile makers and Tier-1 providers are engaged with considering the product for PoC or adoption. Also, Karamba’s technology is gaining a lot of notice overseas, having received many awards, such as an award from TU-Automotive World, held in Detroit in the US, for three years running from 2017 onwards.
  Karamba XGuard CFI is a product for IoT operating systems with customized CFI functionality.

  In addition, the following two products that Asgent also sells were finalists for the Best of Show Award.

[Security Division] DEEP THREAT PREVENTION
[Cloud Service Division] IRONSCALES MSSP API

[Karamba's Award History]
March 2017: Frost &Sullivan "Best Practices Award 2017"
March 2018:AUTO Connected CAR News "2018 Best Automotive Cybersecurity Solution"
May 2018:Gartner "Cool Vendors in IoT Security"
March 2019:SC Magazine "Highly Regarded Innovator Awards"

*CFI has been recognized as a superior security methodology in academic circles since the early 2000s, but has been a difficult technology to implement until now for two reasons: (1) it uses a lot of memory resources, and (2) there is severe impact on performance.

*Company and product names are the trademarks or registered trademark of the respective companies.