A lot of our pc time is spent in an internet browser, the place we verify emails, create paperwork, switch information, perform on-line banking, store or stream leisure. This leaves us weak to safety threats like phishing, id theft and session hijacking, however many cybersecurity instruments had been created when the primary threats had been file viruses, worms and community assaults, mentioned Vivek Ramachandran, the cybersecurity entrepreneur and researcher who found the Cafe Latte assault.
To fight browser-based vulnerabilities, Ramachandran based SquareX. The Singapore-based cybersecurity startup introduced immediately it has raised $6 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, which it’ll use on R&D engineering and its go-to-market plans.
SquareX needs to function an alternative choice to present cybersecurity merchandise by being tailored for browser-based cloud SaaS instruments. It integrates with browsers as an extension and lets customers open hyperlinks and information in disposable browsers that function non permanent container sandboxes. The headless browsers run in SquareX’s information facilities so threats don’t attain customers’ computer systems they usually don’t want to fret about their private info being uncovered.
Earlier than launching SquareX, Ramachandran was the founding father of Pentester Academy, a cloud-based cybersecurity coaching startup that lets customers and enterprises research how hackers break into their firm. Pentester Academy was acquired by INE in 2021.
SquareX founder Vivek Ramachandran
Ramachandran instructed TechCrunch that whereas operating Pentester Academy, his prospects complained about how usually their safety merchandise had been disabled by customers as a result of they received in the best way of their productiveness. For instance, somebody within the technique of receiving of an essential Phrase doc from a contact would have that file flagged as malware and would find yourself disabling safety software program with a purpose to view it. Consequently, Ramachandran realized that many safety merchandise are literally counterproductive as a result of they make folks much less possible to make use of them.
Consequently, he created SquareX, which doesn’t block entry to information or assets, even after they have been categorized as doubtlessly malicious. As an alternative, it makes use of its disposable browsers. Ramachandran mentioned SquareX is meant as a different to VPN, anti-virus, anti-malware and different endpoint safety options.
SquareX’s disposable browsers allow nameless searching from any location. Customers can “dispose” of it at anytime, which suggests no information is retained and the browser session is destroyed and faraway from SquareX’s servers instantly. Ramachandran mentioned it’s safer and extra personal than incognito mode as a result of web sites the person visits or information they obtain don’t get saved of their pc.
“By creating disposable environments, SquareX ensures {that a} person’s id and information is decoupled when accessing the web,” he added. “This ensures that even probably the most refined web site trackers would fail to trace and log the customers actions and tie it to their id.”
SquareX’s go-to-market technique will deal with the US, the UK and Asia first.
In an announcement concerning the funding, Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Surge companion at Sequoia Southeast Asia, mentioned, “The net world is about to get a complete lot worse because the AI revolution will get channeled in the direction of constructing malicious code. Each cybersecurity answer out there may be solely probabilistically profitable in defending web customers, which isn’t of a lot consolation in the event that they get hacked and lose cash. SquareX is the primary answer we’ve seen that takes a 100% safety method–the place no matter how new and complex the assault is, it has no probability to contaminate customers. That is the longer term we expect all web customers deserve.”
