France Slaps Fine on Face Recognition Firm Clearview AI
The company collects images of faces from websites and social media feeds without seeking permission and sells access to its vast database — reportedly around 20 billion pictures — to clients including law enforcement agencies. Privacy activists around the world have raised objections to the business model, already winning a case in the United States…
Cybersecurity Investment Remains Strong, M&A Activity Heads Toward New Annual Record
Strong areas of interest to investors included blockchain security, IAM, and privacy, while interest in DevSecOps and the need to embed security throughout the software development life cycle is growing. Two very large deals were announced during Q3. On August 29, 2022, OpenText announced an agreement to purchase Micro Focus for a total of $6.7…
OutThink Raises $10 Million for Human Risk Management Platform
The funding round was led by AlbionVC, with participation from Forward Partners, Gapminder, Innovate UK, and TriplePoint Capital. Founded in 2019, the London, UK-based company proposes a new approach to security awareness training. The company’s SaaS solution helps organizations identify and manage human risk, to improve employee behavior. The platform combines human intelligence with data…
IronVest Emerges From Stealth Mode With $23 Million in Seed Funding
The investment round was led by Accomplice, with participation from Joule Ventures, OurCrowd, Trust Ventures, Ulysses, and several angel investors. Founded in December 2021, the New York-based company provides a biometric security and privacy application for protecting digital accounts across banking, email, investing, and healthcare services. IronVest says its solution takes a decentralized approach to…
DataGrail Raises $45 Million for Data Privacy Platform
The new investment round was led by Third Point Ventures, with participation from Cloud Apps Capital, Felicis Ventures, Next47, Operator Collective, Sixty Degree Capital, and Thomson Reuters Ventures. Founded in 2018, the San Francisco-based firm provides a data privacy solution that creates an automated map of all business systems within an organization, to provide visibility…
Oort Raises $15 Million for Identity Threat Detection and Response Platform
The funding round – which included $3.5 million Seed and $11.5 million Series A investments – was co-led by .406 Ventures and Energy Impact Partners (EIP). Founded in 2019, the Boston-based firm provides enterprises with an identity-centric platform that offers visibility and control over the identity attack surface, helping them secure both employees and contractors…
Insurance Giant Lloyd’s of London Investigating Cybersecurity Incident
The company says it has detected unusual activity and decided to ‘reset’ its network and systems as a precaution. It shut down all external connectivity, including its delegated authority platforms, in response to the incident. “Following the unusual activity detected on Lloyd’s network, our precautionary work to secure systems has been completed overnight,” a Lloyd’s…
RealDefense Raises $30 Million to Acquire More Privacy, Cybersecurity Firms
Founded in 2017, the Pasadena, California-based firm provides organizations with privacy, cybersecurity, and optimization solutions for PC, Mac, and mobile devices. The firm offers software and services tailored for consumers and small businesses and has a global presence in 33 countries, claiming to have more than one million customers. Additionally, RealDefense offers an M&A playbook…
Web Security Company Detectify Raises $10 Million
Founded in 2013, the cloud-based External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solutions provider scans web applications for thousands of known vulnerabilities and monitors subdomains for malicious takeover. The SaaS security company has over 140 employees, but also works with ethical hackers, delivering payload-based testing to customers. Detectify claims to have more than 1,900 customers, helping them…
Quantifying ROI in Cybersecurity Spend
You cannot separate cost and value in business: value is used to justify cost. Business value is measured by the return on investment (ROI) from cost. By understanding current ROI it is easier to justify future cost because you know the value. But this is a problem: how do you measure or quantify ROI in…
