Prolexic’s special operations center in Hollywood [Photo: Prolexic]

» Prolexic, Hollywood

“I think the first month I was here a major sort of Fortune Global 500 company was getting attacked by Anonymous. They were attacking this company in eight different regions of world.” — Scott Hammack

Founded in 2003, Prolexic had a colorful start tied to an online casino it defended in an era when offshore gambling companies were rumored to attack each other’s websites to gain a competitive edge. Prolexic’s early history and the exploits of founder Barrett Lyon, who helped authorities go after an internet ring in the former USSR, were captured in a 2010 book titled “Fatal System Error.”

The business was sold and then sold again in March 2011, when Silicon Valley-based Kennet Partners put up $11 million to buy it, partnering with veteran south Florida IT executive Scott Hammack, who put up $2 million.

Under Hammack, the 65-employee company has pursued a less colorful but higher-growth strategy. Its clients include 10 of the world’s largest banks, major e-commerce companies, online casinos, government-related entities, software service companies and members of the Global 2000.

The privately held company posted 45% revenue growth in 2011, turned a profit and doubled its customer base. In February, it announced $8 million in new venture funding and is recruiting 40 new employees.

KnowBe4 trains workers how to avoid getting infected. [Photo: Jeremiah Kokhar]

» KnowBe4, Clearwater

Stu Sjouwerman [Photo: Jeremiah Kokhar]

Stu Sjouwerman founded KnowBe4, which was conceived as an alternative to traditional training lectures. KnowBe4 sends client employees simulated phishing attacks, such as fake messages from a firm’s IT department to click on a link and change their password. Changing a password that way is a fundamental mistake, but even so up to 40% of employees fall for it. KnowBe4 trains the workers online in how to spot fake e-mails and what not to do. In follow-up phishing tests, KnowBe4 finds the click rate drops 75% to 80%. Once hackers gain access through a computer, their aim is to steal intellectual property or find their way to the financial officers, capture their key logins and transfer money out. Some companies — in finance, health care and defense — are required to provide security awareness training to workers. Outside of those industries, many companies do not. “Everyone’s under attack. Even 50-, 25-employee type companies,” Sjouwerman says. China-based attacks generally are after intellectual property; European internet mafias are after money. “When communism died, highly skilled workers needed something that pays.”

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Dave Aitel

» Immunity, Miami Beach

Founded in 2002, 30-employee Immunity relocated from New York in 2005 to take advantage of Florida’s lower operating costs. It does “penetration testing,” serving as a third-party assessor of whether a company is secure. It works for government and Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies and does a lot of work in the financial sector thanks to its New York roots. “If you have any internet presence, then you’re a target,” says founder and CEO David Aitel, who joined the National Security Agency at age 18, has authored books on hacking and computer languages and hosts the DailyDave mailing list. Eweek named him one of the most 15 influential people in security, lauding him as a “hacker in his own right.”

Helmuth Freericks

» Commtouch, Palm Beach Gardens

Commtouch employs 14 in Florida working on anti-malware research and development and support for Google, Microsoft and other customers, says Helmuth Freericks, Commtouch’s general manager for anti-malware solutions, who founded Command Software in 1984, which was acquired by Authentium and then in 2010 by Commtouch, an Israel-based cloud-security company.

AppRiver co-founder and CTO Joel Smith

» AppRiver, Gulf Breeze

The company cleans viruses from e-mails routed through it. In five years, revenue has increased 430%, and the company has added more than 100 employees as it broadens services. Its strong suit is service to small- and medium-sized companies. Time is money, even for internet criminals, so they go after smaller, less well-defended companies, says co-founder and CTO Joel Smith. Tip: “One of the biggest things we tell people is don’t do financial activity on a computer kids use.”

Kurt Long, FairWarning founder and CEO

» FairWarning, Clearwater

The coming of electronic health care records easily shared among doctors, hospitals and other caregivers has been touted for years. Less well advertised is how quickly they can be hacked into. FairWarning in Clearwater specializes in privacy-breach detection for electronic health care records and now serves 800-plus hospitals and 2,500 clinics in 42 states, Canada and Europe, including the entire National Health Service in Scotland. It grew from 20 employees last year to 50 now.

» SI Government Solutions, Melbourne

Raytheon bought SI, a supplier to U.S. intelligence agencies, in 2008 for an undisclosed amount. SI, founded in 2005, was known at the time for assessing vulnerabilities.

» GFI, Clearwater

GFI bought Sunbelt Software in 2010 and now employs more than 200 locally developing and supporting IT security products, notably its Vipre Antivirus software. It’s hiring, says Ed Harnish, marketing vice president.

» Systematic Development Group, Deerfield Beach

Maker of the LOK-IT secure flash drive