A Phoenix-based cybersecurity startup with operations in Singapore has raised a new round of funding to expand its workforce and worldwide reach.
Right-Hand Cybersecurity announced Tuesday it closed a $5 million series A round of funding led by AZ-VC, which was founded by former PayPal executive Jack Selby and is the largest venture capital firm in Arizona.
The company plans to use funding proceeds to grow its operations in the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region as well as support the integration of its cybersecurity platform in technologies already used by large enterprise companies in the banking, utilities and energy industries.
Right-Hand takes what it describes as a "human-centered approach" to cybersecurity via its platform, which reduces cybersecurity breaches caused by human errors by tracking employees' web and email surfing behaviors, generating a risk score and assigning real-time training based on their risk analysis.
“What differentiates Right-Hand is that we go beyond just ‘checking the box’ for improving user behaviors to reduce cybersecurity risks,” Theo Nasser, founder and CEO of Right-Hand Cybersecurity, told AZ Inno. “We provide an ongoing overview of employee risk profiles, and tailor learning materials specifically to individual behaviors to help reduce security alerts that inundate the security operation center – a radical departure from the ‘one size fits all’ security awareness approach that’s become the unfortunate norm in this space. Right-Hand and our customers see this as the future for human layer security.”
The company, which has nearly 40 employees, expects to increase its workforce to 50 by the end of the year, Nasser said.
Right-Hand’s approach to tracking and changing behaviors has benefited favored by major enterprise customers, including Western Alliance Bank and Real Time Resolutions, a loan servicing company.
“We’re pleased to be working with Right-Hand Cybersecurity, utilizing the company’s innovative, adaptive and gamified approach to help train our employees in cybersecurity as part of our ongoing efforts to minimize fraud,” Victor Vinogradov, chief information security officer of Western Alliance Bank, said in a statement. “Right-Hand’s focus on people and how human behavior relates to cybersecurity is a smart way to support risk management in this critical area.”
Nasser, along with Uzair Ahmed, founded Right-Hand Cybersecurity in 2019.
Right-Hand moved HQ from Singapore to Arizona
Nasser said his idea for the company was sparked after working for California-based cybersecurity company Mandiant Inc., formerly known as FireEye Inc.
“Think of them as the 911 phone call that you would make for a breach,” Nasser said. “They would come in and essentially do all of the network forensics, all of the analysis to find out the who, what, when, where and why of what happened. They actually get the bad guys out of your network environment and, hopefully, minimize the damage that was done.”
While Nasser was working for the company, he noticed trends about the root cause of cybersecurity breaches, which was typically an employee that clicked on a malicious link rather than a hacker trying to attack an organization’s network.
Nasser initially launched Right-Hand Cybersecurity in Singapore and moved to Arizona about two years ago with a focus on expanding the company in the U.S.
“We wanted to gain traction and customers with the intention of raising a Series A from U.S. investors that have relevant domain expertise for what we're building,” he said.
The pandemic further exacerbated the need for cybersecurity training as more employees were working from home, Nasser said.
“Security teams and businesses had less control over the types of behaviors that were happening because people weren't necessarily connected to the corporate network,” Nasser said. “They were connected to their own personal device or their own personal network at their home, so there was a bit of a bit of loss of control and visibility for a lot of teams.”
Right-Hand Cybersecurity's human-element approach to preventing cybersecurity breaches at organizations prompted AZ-VC to invest in the company, Selby said.
“Right-Hand is breaking this dogma of ‘check of the box’ security training by creating a platform that changes behaviors and significantly reduces security risks in real-time. I’m proud to support such a purposeful team and company in Right-Hand,” Selby said in a statement.
