PKWare

Last updated

PKWARE, Inc
Company type Private
Industry
Founded1986;39 years ago (1986)
Founder Phil Katz
Headquarters
201 E. Pittsburgh Ave., Ste. 400, Milwaukee, WI
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Spencer Kupferman (CEO), Tonya Cannady (CRO), Jason Dobbs (COO)
Products
Brands
  • PK Protect
  • PK Masking
  • PK Privacy
  • PK Classification
  • PK Encryption
  • PK Discovery
  • SecureZip
  • PKZip
Parent Thompson Street Capital Partners (since 2020) [1]
Website www.pkware.com

PKWARE, Inc. is an American enterprise data protection software company that provides discovery, classification, masking and encryption software, along with data compression software. It is used by organizations in a range of industries including financial services, manufacturing, military, healthcare and government. The company's products are intended to assist other companies in complying with various data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. The company is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with additional offices in the US, UK, and India.[ citation needed ]

Contents

PKWARE was founded in 1986 by Phil Katz, co-inventor of the ZIP standard.

Thompson Street Capital Partners acquired PKWARE Inc. in 2020. [1]

History

PKWare in Milwaukee, former Pittsburgh Plate Glass Enamel Plant Milwaukee August 2024 007 (Pittsburgh Plate Glass Enamel Plant--PKWare).jpg
PKWare in Milwaukee, former Pittsburgh Plate Glass Enamel Plant

Compression software (1986–2000)

PKWARE was founded in 1986 by Phil Katz, a software developer who had begun distributing a new file compression utility, called PKARC, as shareware. PKARC represented a radical improvement over existing compression software (including the ARC utility, on which it was based) and gained popularity among individuals and corporations. [2]

Following a legal settlement with Systems Enhancement Associates Inc., the owners of ARC, Katz stopped distributing PKARC. He released his own compression program, which he called PKZIP, in 1989. PKZIP was the first program to use the new ZIP file format, which Katz developed in conjunction with Gary Conway and subsequently released into the public domain.

PKWARE grew in its early years through business with large corporations. [2] The ZIP format proved so popular that it became the de facto standard for data compression and remains in use throughout the world after more than 30 years. [2]

Purchase and expansion (2001–2008)

After Katz died in 2000, his family sold the company to a new management team led by George Haddix and backed by investment-banking firm Grace Matthews. [3] Two years later, the company acquired Ascent Solutions, a large-platform software firm based in Dayton, Ohio. [4]

SecureZIP, a program that combined PKZIP's data compression with enhanced encryption functionality, was released in 2004. In the following years, PKWARE continued to add support for large and small platform operating systems and introduced new features for both PKZIP and SecureZIP.

Shift toward data protection (2009–2015)

A new ownership group including company management, Novacap Technologies, and Maranon Capital acquired PKWARE in 2009. [5] The company's new CEO, V. Miller Newton, steered the company toward an increased focus on its encryption products in response to growing concerns about data security among PKWARE's customers in industries such as healthcare and government. [6]

In 2012, PKWARE released Viivo, a cloud storage encryption product to help customers secure data stored on Dropbox and other cloud storage services. Viivo received attention for having been developed outside of traditional methods in an effort toward "disruptive innovation" in the emerging cloud security market. [5]

Developing and purchasing expanded capabilities (2016–present)

PKWARE released Smartcrypt, a data protection platform combining encryption, data discovery, and encryption key management, in 2016. In 2018, PKWARE added Data Classification with Data Redaction to support PCI DSS compliance added one year later in 2019.

PKWARE was purchased by Thompson Street Capital Partners in May 2020. After acquiring Dataguise in November 2020, the companies were merged under the single PKWARE name. Products from both legacy companies were renamed according to the new PK branding structure and the combined company received new branding to support the changes. These expanded capabilities enable PKWARE to offer data protection for structured data, unstructured data and semi-structured data.

Acquisitions

On May 13, 2020, Thompson Street Capital Partners acquired PKWARE for an undisclosed sum. [1] [7] Under Thompson Street, PKWARE acquired Dataguise on November 10, 2020, for their sensitive information detection technologies ("data discovery"). [8] [9]

Products

In addition to its data compression and encryption products, PKWARE continues to maintain the ZIP file format standard in the public domain. The company publishes an Application Note on the ZIP file format, providing developers with a general description and technical details of the ZIP file storage specification. [10] This Application Note ensures continued interoperability of the ZIP file format for all users.

Product nameDescription
ZIP ReaderZIP Reader is a free Windows utility. [11] Any ZIP file can be opened with the reader program, regardless of where it was created. To open an archive, the user can drag and drop the desired zip file over the program, and it will extract. A second method is to simply select which file to extract from within the utility. An email address is required to download ZIP Reader from the PKWARE website. [11]
PKZIPPKZIP is a software utility that allows the compression and decompression of multiple files and folders into a single archive or multiple archives. The name combines the initials of company founder Phil Katz with “zip”, a reference to the software's speed. [2]

Originally, PKZIP was written as shareware for DOS. Since its creation, PKWARE has expanded support of PKZIP to Windows Desktop, Windows Server, UNIX, Linux, and IBM i and zSeries platforms. Later versions of PKZIP include strong encryption algorithms to accommodate security needs. [12]

SecureZIPSecureZIP was released in 2004 as an extension of PKZIP. SecureZIP contained the same compression and passphrase protection as PKZIP but also introduced digital signature authentication and digital certificate-based encryption. [13]

In 2006, the company added a new option called SecureZIP PartnerLink, through which customers can become "sponsors" and provide an unlimited number of SecureZIP Partner licenses to the organization's business partners. [14]

PKWARE added support for OpenPGP encryption in 2011, along with new features that allow SecureZIP to integrate with data loss prevention technology. [15] In 2012, the company released mobile versions of SecureZIP for Android and iOS devices. [16] [17]

ViivoViivo, a cloud encryption service, was released in 2012. PKWARE made an end-of-life announcement for Viivo in 2017, with support continuing until July 1, 2018. [18]
SmartcryptLaunched in 2016, Smartcrypt became PKWARE's newest data protection tool, combining data discovery, encryption, and encryption key management. Smartcrypt includes a web-based management console, from which administrators can apply encryption policies across an organization's user devices and network resources.
PK Protect SuiteRebranded in 2021 after the acquisition of Dataguise, the PK Protect suite encompasses all former PKWARE and Dataguise products and offers tools for managing personal data and other sensitive data through data discovery, classification, masking, redaction, and encryption. PK Protect includes the following product categories, which are offered to be purchased individually or as a bundle:
  • PK Discovery – finds sensitive data wherever it lives in the enterprise
  • PK Classification – categorizes data for tagging and reporting
  • PK Masking – irreversible data protection that is auditable
  • PK Encryption – file encryption for data protection and analytics
  • PK Privacy – manages data retention policies and responds to DSAR

Patents

Phil Katz was granted a patent in September 1991, for the search functions used in the PKZIP compression process. [19]

In 2001 and 2005, PKWARE was awarded patents for patching technology used within PKZIP products. [20] Also in 2005, PKWARE was granted a patent for methods used to manage .ZIP files within the Windows file manager and Outlook. [21]

In total, PKWARE holds[ when? ] four patents, has over fourteen pending patents and, as of May 2020, is referenced in over two hundred patents. [22]

Awards

2002

2016

2020

2021

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Katz</span> American software developer (1962–2000)

Phillip Walter Katz was a computer programmer best known as the co-creator of the ZIP file format for data compression, and the author of PKZIP, a program for creating zip files that ran under DOS.

In computing, Deflate is a lossless data compression file format that uses a combination of LZ77 and Huffman coding. It was designed by Phil Katz, for version 2 of his PKZIP archiving tool. Deflate was later specified in RFC 1951 (1996).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PKZIP</span> File archiving software

PKZIP is a file archiving computer program, notable for introducing the popular ZIP file format. PKZIP was first introduced for MS-DOS on the IBM-PC compatible platform in 1989. Since then versions have been released for a number of other architectures and operating systems. PKZIP was originally written by Phil Katz and marketed by his company PKWARE, Inc starting in 1986. The company bears his initials: "PK".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WinZip</span> File compression software

WinZip is a trialware file archiver and compressor for Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. It is developed by WinZip Computing, which is owned by Alludo. The program can create archives in Zip file format, unpack some other archive file formats and it also has various tools for system integration.

ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, though DEFLATE is the most common. This format was originally created in 1989 and was first implemented in PKWARE, Inc.'s PKZIP utility, as a replacement for the previous ARC compression format by Thom Henderson. The ZIP format was then quickly supported by many software utilities other than PKZIP. Microsoft has included built-in ZIP support in versions of Microsoft Windows since 1998 via the "Plus! 98" addon for Windows 98. Native support was added as of the year 2000 in Windows ME. Apple has included built-in ZIP support in Mac OS X 10.3 and later. Most free operating systems have built in support for ZIP in similar manners to Windows and macOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RSA Security</span> American computer security company

RSA Security LLC, formerly RSA Security, Inc. and trade name RSA, is an American computer and network security company with a focus on encryption and decryption standards. RSA was named after the initials of its co-founders, Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, after whom the RSA public key cryptography algorithm was also named. Among its products is the SecurID authentication token. The BSAFE cryptography libraries were also initially owned by RSA. RSA is known for incorporating backdoors developed by the NSA in its products. It also organizes the annual RSA Conference, an information security conference.

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Sophos Ltd. is a British security software and hardware company. It develops and markets managed security services and cybersecurity software and hardware, such as managed detection and response, incident response and endpoint security software. Sophos was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Thoma Bravo in March 2020.

ARC is a lossless data compression and archival format by System Enhancement Associates (SEA). The file format and the program were both called ARC. The format is known as the subject of controversy in the 1980s, part of important debates over what would later be known as open formats.

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Tumbleweed Communications Corp. provided secure messaging and secure file transfer solutions for enterprise and government customers. The company became a publicly traded company in 1999, trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol TMWD. Tumbleweed Communications merged with Axway, a subsidiary of Sopra Group, in 2008.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocarina Networks</span>

Ocarina Networks was a technology company selling a hardware/software solution designed to reduce data footprints with file-aware storage optimization. A subsidiary of Dell, their flagship product, the Ocarina Appliance/Reader, released in April 2008, uses patented data compression techniques incorporating such methods as record linkage and context-based lossless data compression. The product includes the hardware-appliance-based compressor, the Ocarina Optimizer and a real-time decompressor, the software-based Ocarina Reader.

Perspecsys Inc. is a cloud computing security company Founded by Terry and Lynda Woloszyn, on July 6 2006 that provides cloud data protection software. Perspecsys has offices in the Toronto area; Tysons Corner, Virginia; San Francisco, California; London, England; Paris, France; and Berlin, Germany.

Tresorit is a cloud storage platform that offers functions for administration, storage, synchronization, and transfer of data using end-to-end encryption.

CipherCloud is an American software company providing cloud computing security to businesses. The company was established in 2010 and is based out of San Jose, California.

Egress Software Technologies Ltd is a UK-based software company providing security software for e-mail, secure messaging, Document and Email Classification, and associated technologies to assist secure file sharing and handling.

Keeper Security, Inc. (Keeper) is a global cybersecurity company founded in 2009 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Keeper provides zero-knowledge security and encryption software covering functions such as password and passkey management, secrets management, privileged access management, secure remote access and encrypted messaging.

Forcepoint is an American multinational corporation software company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that develops computer security software and data protection, cloud access security broker, firewall and cross-domain solutions.

Hyperice is an American health technology company founded in 2010. It designs and manufactures recovery and movement enhancement products. In 2024, it was published that Hyperice faced severe data security breaches, compromising the personal and health information of millions of users.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Collins, Caroline (May 13, 2020). "Thompson Street Capital Partners Announces Acquisition of PKWARE Inc". Business Wire. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Matt Murray and Jeffrey A. Tannenbaum (June 19, 2000). "The Rise and Fall of a Software Star; Phil Katz Loved Code – and Liquor". wsj.com.
  3. ↑ Gertzen, Jason. "Management team purchases PKWARE: Brown Deer firm leads in data compression." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. March 16, 2001
  4. ↑ "PKWARE Acquires Ascent Solutions, Inc". excnext.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
  5. 1 2 Kathleen Gallagher. "Milwaukee-based PKWare changes hands". jsonline.com.
  6. ↑ Kathleen Gallagher. "CEO's move to PKWare based on location". jsonline.com. Archived from the original on November 17, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Thompson Street Capital Partners Acquires Data Protection Provider PKWARE". Thompson Street Capital Partners. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  8. ↑ "PKWARE Announces The Acquisition Of Dataguise". PKWARE. PKWARE, Inc. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  9. ↑ Abramson, Daniel (November 10, 2020). "PKWARE Announces the Acquisition of Dataguise". Business Wire. BackBay Communications. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Vagas de Emprego Sync2it" . Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  11. 1 2 "Free Zip Reader". viloria.com.
  12. ↑ "What is PKZIP (or PKZip)? - Definition from WhatIs.com". WhatIs.com.
  13. ↑ "SecureZIP". TheFreeDictionary.com.
  14. ↑ "PKWARE Extends Data Security Software to Support OpenPGP" (PDF).
  15. ↑ "SecureZIP for iOS targets employee side of BYOD". March 19, 2021.
  16. ↑ "PKWARE Offers First Enterprise-level Security App on Google Play" (PDF).
  17. ↑ "Index Page". CompletelyPrivateFiles. Archived from the original on April 24, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  18. ↑ Patent 5,051,745
  19. ↑ Patent 6,289,509 and Patent 6,952,823
  20. ↑ Patent 6,879,988
  21. ↑ Patent Search
  22. ↑ "PC Magazines' Editors' Choice Award: PKZip 4.5". PCMAG.
  23. ↑ "Security Products and securitytoday.com Announce The Govies Government Security Award Winners for 2016". 1105 Media.
  24. ↑ "Cybersecurity Excellence Awards 2020". Cybersecurity Excellence Awards. January 30, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Cybersecurity Excellence Awards 2021". Cybersecurity Excellence Awards. February 25, 2021.
  26. ↑ "American Business Awards 2021". The Stevie® Awards. May 2, 2019.
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