Password hygiene. It's a phrase that's on almost every IT and cybersecurity professional's mind. That's because they know that those "Mom123" passwords, along with lists of leaked passwords traded among experienced hackers, are the cause of many of the most damaging security breaches.
About 80 percent of hacking breaches use weak or stolen passwords as their entry point, Verizon reported.
This is where SpyCloud, an Austin cybersecurity startup formed in 2017, comes in.
It prevents account takeovers by monitoring the ever-evolving network of security threats, leaked passwords and exposed accounts on the dark web, private forums and other places. It automates a response, often a forced password reset, when it identifies a vulnerable account within a network. SpyCloud also conducts fraud investigations and it has an API to plug into existing security systems.
“There isn’t a company in the world that doesn’t run the constant risk of having its employee or customer accounts exposed, and that leads to a host of other issues,” SpyCloud CEO Ted Ross said in a news release.
SpyCloud on Tuesday announced a $5 million Series A funding to expand its product offerings, perform more security research and hire new people. The funding came from Austin-based Silverton Partners and Santa Monica, California-based March Capital Partners. The startup previously raised a $2.5 million seed round from those firms in 2016.
“SpyCloud’s arrival has filled a devastating gap in the enterprise security realm,” Jim Armstrong, partner and co-founder of March Capital Partners, said in the release. “When millions of accounts and billions of dollars are at risk and under attack daily, companies can’t afford to sit idle.”
