Menlo Security Inc.’s $75 million late-stage funding round announced today once again illustrates the premium that enterprises are willing to pay to keep their data secure.

Today’s Series D round was led by JP Morgan Asset Management, with participation from existing investors General Catalyst, Sutter Hill Ventures, Osage University Partners, American Express Ventures, HSBC. It brings the total funding raised to date to $160.5 million.

Menlo offers what it calls an “isolation platform” that separates enterprise networks from the public web while still providing access to the internet. The way it works is that things such as email attachments and websites are accessed via a secure cloud server instead of a direct connection. This means they’re prevented from accessing local systems, thereby isolating potential threats such as malware and ransomware, and guarding against so-called “phishing attacks” that attempt to steal user credentials.

This method of security is what’s known as a “zero-trust” approach, in which all documents and website are automatically treated as being suspect.

The approach is extremely reliable, if Menlo is to be believed. Recently, the company helped to block “thousands of phishing and malware attacks” against a Global 2000 enterprise that were not detected by its other security systems. Menlo reckons these attacks went on for months, and included 1,089 emailed phishing links that were clicked on by company employees, and 8,541 known malicious websites that were not blocked by other security defenses and were visited by staff.

“Although these attacks successfully bypassed the customer’s other defenses, Menlo Security’s Isolation Secure Web Gateway prevented malware installation, theft of end-user credentials and the exfiltration of corporate data,” the company said.

Enterprises certainly, seem to buy into Menlo’s claims. The company boasts thousands of corporate customers, including seven of the world’s 10 largest banks, four of the five biggest credit card issuers, and the U.S. government’s Defense Information Systems Agency.

Armed with its new funding, Menlo says it wants to add even more customers, with the plan being to grow its sales team to meet what it says is “growing demand” for its internet isolation platform.

“Zero-trust internet changes the paradigm by blocking attackers from reaching their targets, while providing users the ability to access the Internet as they always have,” said Menlo Security Chief Executive Officer Amir Ben-Efraim. “Companies using Internet isolation are protected against email and web attacks, which account for nearly all successful breaches in an enterprise.”

Image: TBIT/Pixabay