https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/29/area-1-security-raises-25-million-for-ai-tools-to-protect-against-phishing/
By Kyle Wiggers
VentureBeat
June 29, 2020
Area 1 Security, a cybersecurity company offering AI-driven protection
against phishing attacks, has raised a $25 million round. A spokesperson
said the funding will accelerate R&D and the expansion of Area 1’s
go-to-market resources, with a particular focus on an “aggressive
multi-tier channel strategy.” This comes after a sixth-month period when
the startup claims to have saved $273 million in active financial cyber
fraud and blocked millions of phishing attempts.
According to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, nearly
one-third of all data breaches involved phishing in one way or another.
That’s likely because users have a tendency to fall for such attacks.
KnowBe4 reports that 38% of employees who don’t undergo cyber awareness
training fail phishing tests. Problematically, the pandemic appears to
have worsened the onslaught, with companies like Google suggesting
millions of COVID-19-related phishing scams are being perpetrated daily.
Area 1 has an interesting history. The company was incorporated in 2013 by
Oren Falkowitz, Blake Darché, and Phil Syme, who were formerly employed by
the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In December 2018, Area 1 revealed
a Chinese government cyber campaign targeting over 100 intergovernmental
organizations, ministries of foreign affairs, ministries of finance, trade
unions, and think tanks that led to the breach of a European Union (EU)
diplomatic communications network. In January 2020, the company uncovered
a Russian government phishing campaign targeting Burisma Holdings and its
subsidiaries — the scandal-tied Ukrainian firm that hired former Vice
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
Area 1’s technology attempts to prevent phishing across email, social,
web, and network vectors by integrating with cloud suites within less than
a day. It operates on a unique pay-per-phish model — customers only pay
for attempts it catches — and it ostensibly identifies and stops phishing
attempts up to 24 hours before they actually occur.
[...]
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