Sanctum Inc.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Information technology, Computer security |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder | Eran Reshef, Gili Raanan |
| Defunct | 2003 |
| Fate | Merged with Watchfire |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara , United States |
| Products | AppShield, AppScan |
Sanctum Inc. was an information technology firm located in Santa Clara, California, focused on securing applications. Its principal offerings featured the AppShield firewall and AppScan, a security scanner designed for application layers within web settings.
In 2003, Sanctum combined operations with Watchfire, which subsequently became part of IBM through acquisition.
History
Established in 1997 under the name Perfecto Technologies by entrepreneurs Eran Reshef and Gili Raanan, Sanctum unveiled its inaugural product, AppShield, in 1999. The company engaged in pioneering application security research, incorporating formal methodologies into software engineering alongside Turing Award laureate Professor Amir Pnueli. Initial investigations during 1996–1997 played a role in developing and filing patents related to CAPTCHA technology.
In 2000, Perfecto Technologies adopted the Sanctum name. The enterprise attracted investment from notable firms such as Sequoia Capital, Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs, DLJ, Walden, and Mofet.
Products
AppShield represented one of the earliest web application firewalls, conceived by Eran Reshef and Gili Raanan and launched in 1999. This product analyzed incoming HTTP traffic and prevented attacks by applying a dynamic policy generated from examining outgoing HTML content. By 2002, AppShield was implemented by 60 Fortune 100 corporations. Following Sanctum’s acquisition by Watchfire in 2004, the intellectual property rights for AppShield were transferred to F5 Networks, which eventually phased it out in favor of their TrafficShield solution.
In June 2000, the company released AppScan, recognized as the first automated tool for assessing vulnerabilities in Web Security. Early adopters included prominent organizations like Yahoo!, Bank of America, and AT&T.