Arlington, Va.-based cybersecurity software developer TruSTAR has secured a $2 million seed round led by prominent, Silicon Valley-based, seed-stage investment firm Resolute Ventures. The fresh funding will be used, the company announced, specifically for hiring and product development efforts.
TruSTAR has developed a cloud-based software platform that enables clients to anonymously contribute and share cyber threat intel data between a network. The goal of the software is to provide a safe platform for secure sharing of useful and efficient threat data so as to improve security system updates before an attack or breach ever occurs.
The Arlington startup's membership, today, primarily consists of clients hailing from the commercial sector, drawing from finance, IT, education, manufacturing and aviation. Threat intel reports are categorized by sector automatically, but customers have the benefit of understanding attacks occurring in other industries as well.
“We decided to invest in TruSTAR because we firmly believe in the team, the technology and the timing of this innovation to change the game in cybersecurity. We are confident that TruSTAR’s platform, combined with its vision of connective defense, will help companies drive to mitigation faster and increase the costs for cyber attackers," said Raanan Bar-Cohen, co-founder and partner at Resolute Ventures, in a statement.
The TruSTAR sharing "network" is closed from outside surveillance and involves active monthly participants with a shared concern.
Amid the ongoing privacy and security debate that surrounds the recently passed cybersecurity information sharing act (CISA) by the U.S. Senate, TruSTAR CEO Paul Kurtz said in a statement that he believes private companies are becoming increasingly aware of the need to share and receive relevant information about cyberattacks. Many times, industry peers face similar cyber threats/hackers and as a result, the ability to add a predictive layer allows businesses to prepare appropriate defenses.
“In order to make progress and beat the cyber criminals at their own game, we must move from an individualistic model to one of connective defense," Kurtz said.
The new Seed funding round will not affect the composition of TruSTAR's board of directors, Kurtz told DC Inno.
Cyber threat intel sharing between enterprises is nothing new, but the risk of having this information leaked is becoming increasingly apparent.
In a world where legislation continues to lag behind the pragmatic demand that's occurring throughout the market, startups like TruSTAR hope they can provide a premier solution capable of attracting mass usage. The challenge, of course, is in attracting a significant and active user base that is also capable of sharing valuable content on a consistent basis. It's a race against the clock, however, as early customers nonetheless face risks everyday.
Importantly, TruSTAR receives an average of 8 new reports each day, among 10 to 15 companies regularly sharing incident data on its platform, Kurtz said. Both the number of reports received by TruSTAR and companies participating has been increasing week over week. In addition, clients are now beginning to collaborate more often using the company's end-to-end encrypted chat feature, which allows them to move more quickly to mitigate shared risks, Kurtz added.
