Lookout is a data-centric cloud security company that delivers zero trust security by reducing risk and protecting data wherever it goes, without boundaries or limits. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Lookout CEO and Chairman Jim Dolce to learn more about the company.
Jim Dolce’s Background
What is Jim Dolce’s background? Dolce said:
“I’m an experienced entrepreneur in the networking and security industry and the founder of four successful tech companies. I’ve held executive positions at Juniper Networks and Akamai, and am currently CEO and Chairman of the Board of Lookout, the mobile endpoint detection and response (EDR) and cloud company protecting against the modern kill chain, in which threat actors are increasingly targeting mobile devices to steal credentials and gain access to sensitive corporate data that resides in the cloud. Lookout helps organizations protect against these advanced threats to ensure their data is secure no matter where it goes.”
Formation Of Lookout
How did the idea for the company come together? Dolce shared:
“Lookout began in 2007 when its founders discovered a Bluetooth vulnerability in the Nokia 3610 and went on to prove Bluetooth vulnerabilities by extracting data and evidence of vulnerabilities from hundreds of celebrities’ phones at the 2007 Academy Awards. That’s why Lookout’s first product was a security app for Windows mobile. Since then, Lookout has expanded from a single mobile app to a full-service cloud and mobile security platform aimed at protecting the enterprise. Although our heritage was in B2C security, it quickly became clear that the mobile device would become a primary platform for enterprise workers. Today the mobile platform is often the entry point to a company’s cloud infrastructure.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Dolce explained:
“Lookout offers a comprehensive security platform designed to protect data across devices, applications and networks. Our core products include Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security, which provides automated protection against mobile threats, and the Lookout Cloud Security Platform, which integrates endpoint and cloud security. Key features encompass data loss prevention (DLP), digital rights management (DRM), and data security posture management (DSPM). The platform also utilizes advanced threat protection, phishing and content protection, and mobile vulnerability management. With a focus on zero trust principles, Lookout ensures real-time insights, consistent policy enforcement, and seamless app connectivity, making security management efficient and effective.”
“Another core offering is Threat Intelligence. Lookout uses the world’s largest AI-driven mobile security solution and dataset to power our threat intelligence services, data forensics and incident response (DFIR) services and research, which is conducted by our world-class Threat Intelligence team. This team is composed of former bug bounty hunters, penetration testers, government intelligence analysts and vulnerability researchers. Leveraging the world’s largest AI-driven mobile security solution and dataset, these experts provide unparalleled insights into mobile malware, APTs, and the latest Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs). With a focus on proactive threat hunting and real-time visibility, our team empowers organizations to stay ahead of cybercriminals and protect their data effectively.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Dolce and the team face in building the company? Dolce acknowledged:
“In cybersecurity, the threat landscape is always evolving. With the advent of generative AI, modern threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect. Within today’s threat landscape, it’s nearly impossible to rely on human reflexes and manual processes to mitigate these new risks. That’s why at Lookout, we’ve made strategic investments in AI implementation to stay ahead of modern cyber threats.”
“Since our earliest days, Lookout has been using AI and machine learning (ML) to simplify security operations and increase effectiveness. Lookout also pioneered the use of ML to monitor user behavior and we’re continuing to innovate on how to deliver threat intelligence information and educate our entire customer base – from small family-owned businesses to the largest branches of government – with the help of AI. With the world’s largest AI-driven mobile security dataset of telemetry, Lookout is enabling organizations to address every potential mobile threat vector and proactively address mobile threats as part of their greater data security strategy.”
Evolution Of Lookout’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Dolce noted:
“Lookout began as a security app for Windows mobile and later Android to help consumers keep their data protected. More than a decade later, Lookout has evolved from a single mobile app for consumers to a comprehensive security platform that provides mobile and cloud security for the enterprise. Our technology today includes mobile endpoint security, advanced threat intelligence, zero trust network access and more.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Dolce cited:
“In the last decade, Lookout has made strategic investments and partnerships that build upon our ultimate vision to put data security at the intersection of today’s workplace and modern cybersecurity threats. In March 2021, Lookout acquired CipherCloud, a leading cloud-native security company. As a result of the acquisition, we were able to enter the security service edge (SSE) market.”
“After divesting our consumer mobile security business in April 2023, we became a pure-play enterprise company fully-focused on offering both mobile threat defense and security service edge solutions to enterprise and government organizations. We are capitalizing on fast-growing demand as organizations look to protect corporate data in a cloud-first world.”
“The shift to remote and hybrid work have introduced a new level of complexity when securing corporate data. Our approach ensures an enterprise’s data is safe — regardless of the device, network or application. Shifting our focus to be 100% on enterprise customers has allowed us to be totally dedicated to developing products our customers need to protect their companies from a world full of increasing security risks.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Dolce about the company’s customer success stories, he highlighted:
“Lookout is trusted by the world’s largest enterprises, the highest levels of government and hundreds of thousands of small businesses to safeguard their data. Among our success stories is one of the world’s largest aerospace companies, which was faced with the challenge of securing a more remote and mobile workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, they deployed Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security to more than 100,000 iOS and Android devices. This solution extended its zero-trust strategy to mobile endpoints, providing continuous conditional access, detection, and protection against device and app threats. The deployment ensured a fully visible mobile threat landscape and maintained tight privacy controls, effectively balancing security with operational efficiency.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Dolce assessed:
“The growth of SSE is accelerating in tandem with the broader business shift toward adopting a SASE architecture. In its October 2023 Forecast Analysis, Gartner stated, “Over the next five years, the market for secure access service edge will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 29%, reaching over $25 billion by 2027.”
“According to Markets and Markets, the global mobile threat defense market is estimated to reach $7.2 billion by 2028.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Dolce affirmed:
“What sets Lookout apart from its competitors is our data-centric, endpoint-to-cloud approach to cybersecurity that protects organizations’ most important asset – data – across devices, networks and applications. We provide a defense-in-depth strategy to protect against the modern breach that directly addresses the new TTPs that threat actors are leveraging. By integrating threat intelligence with SSE and mobile security features in a single, cloud-native solution, we’re giving organizations a leg-up against threats in today’s mobile-first, cloud-driven environment.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Dolce pointed out:
“A few priorities include 1) expanding our capabilities to support a broader range of mobile EDR use cases, and 2) continually evolving our offerings to safeguard individual identities, which strengthens an organization’s defenses against a wider range of ever-growing social engineering threats.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Dolce concluded:
“Mobile threats are escalating to the cloud – threat actors are increasingly targeting mobile devices and using social engineering tactics to steal credentials and impersonate users, all to be able to quickly breach critical corporate cloud infrastructure and steal sensitive data in mere minutes. This is what we at Lookout describe as the modern cyber kill chain. Traditional strategies and legacy technologies simply can’t keep up with modern cyber threats. Organizations today must adopt a defense-in-depth approach to security strategy, aided by AI – this means having continuous insights into what’s happening to mobile devices, and being able to detect and respond automatically to protect data in the cloud no matter where it goes.”
