Intuit has acquired Porticor, an Israeli company that makes encryption products for cloud-based applications. The deal was concluded on February 2, days before Intuit faced widely publicized fraud with efiling of some TurboTax state returns. Intuit said the problems, which halted some state filing for one day over February 5 and 6, did not occur from a breach or its tax process
Porticor technology utilizes split-key encryption technology that is used to prevent the theft of encryption keys where they are stored and when they are in use, a process it refers to as Virtual Key Management. The term split key refers to how the keys work with the data in cloud-based applications. The Master Key, needed to un-encrypt data, is never stored in the user's cloud account or on the Porticor Key Management Service.
The company offers Porticor for Amazon Web Services, one of the major services for hosting applications for software vendors. It also markets Porticor for VMWare, which is one of the major applications for technology virtualization. Porticor was founded by Gilad Parann-Nissany in September 2009. He worked at SAP from 2007 through 2007 where he was chief technology of Small Business Solutions for his final two years
No terms were revealed for the deal with was completed via a share purchase agreement. However, on February 20, Intuit registered 6,511 shares of its common stock as it assumed obligations under the Porticor Incentive Plan for 2015. The shares have a maximum value of $580,667.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
