Brilliant business ideas are driven by brilliant entrepreneurs. Enter Feroot’s own Ivan Tsarynny, CEO and Vitaliy Lim, CTO, whose vision to improve client-side or “front-end” security for businesses around the globe resulted in the closing of $11 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. Feroot will use the funds to meet growing demand for client-side security solutions by accelerating product development and go-to-market initiatives.
A Vision to Protect the Entire Digital Computing Infrastructure
There are few cybersecurity professionals who don’t wake up every morning wanting to make the digital computing environment a safer place by identifying and blocking threats and attacks targeted at business. Until recently most businesses have focused their security efforts on the back end or “server side.” This approach is understandable to an extent; stories about phishing and ransomware, which tend to target back-end infrastructure, dominate the news.
But something is getting lost in translation when it comes to discussions around what constitutes comprehensive or holistic cybersecurity. Simply put, you can’t protect just half your business by focusing only on the back end. Both the server side and the client side need protecting.
Case in point. In the last year, client-side attacks have skyrocketed. Notably incidents included attacks on a gaming company, luxury real estate brands, and online shopping services.
Threat Actors Can Improve Their ROI by Attacking Unprotected Websites
Ivan Tsarynny, Feroot co-founder and CEO points out: “A shocking 98% of websites use forms to collect personal and financial data from customers. Threat actors are starting to gain higher ROI from attacking unprotected client-side applications as compared to traditional server-side attacks. In order to meet the increased demand for our client-side security products we needed to find a great partner with deep experience in helping early-stage cybersecurity startups grow.”
Third-Party Scripts Contribute to the Problem
At the core of the problem lies third-party code written in JavaScript and a business’s ability to know whether those scripts are secure or not. Vitaliy Lim, Feroot’s CTO sums up the issue: “When developers start to cobble together different services and variations of items on their websites and web applications, it’s clear that scripts that were not initially malicious can become malicious with the correct (or, in this case, unfortunate) set of combinations. This makes looking at individual scripts far less effective because you’re not seeing the bigger picture.”
Feroot Seed Funding Will Be Used to Tackle Front-End Security Threats
With Feroot’s PageGuard and Inspector solutions, organizations can streamline the JavaScript analysis process through real-time 24/7 monitoring and protection. These solutions take an automated magnifying glass to front-end JavaScript to analyze, flag, and fix any vulnerable or malicious code. Pageguard and Inspector support application developers and security and privacy professionals who are building JavaScript applications prevent client-side attacks and help ensure compliance.
For Feroot co-founders Tsarynny and Lim, client-side security solutions are an essential part of a business’s security landscape. “Organizations need to prioritize front-end security, since client-side attacks are only going to continue to grow in both scope and magnitude. The seed funding from True Ventures means that Feroot can begin to address this massive front-end security gap to protect both businesses and consumers from cybercrime,” says Tsarynny.
“As interfaces are built in an increasingly distributed way, security challenges have only become harder to tackle,” said Puneet Agarwal, partner at True Ventures. “Ivan and Vitaliy represent a new breed of security entrepreneurs protecting these exposed surface areas. We’re thrilled to partner with them and to support their efforts in protecting user data.”
About Feroot Security
Feroot Security believes customers should be able to do business securely with any company online, without risk or compromise. Feroot secures client-side web applications so businesses can deliver flawless digital user experiences to their customers. Leading brands trust Feroot to protect their client-side attack surface.
About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology startups. With more than $2.8 billion under management, True provides seed and Series A financing to entrepreneurs in today’s fastest growing markets. The True team believes creativity flourishes when founders are supported fully and empowered to pursue brave ideas. To that end, the True Platform offers programs that inspire professional and personal growth. To date, True has helped more than 300 companies launch and scale their businesses, creating over 25,000 jobs worldwide. To learn more, visit www.trueventures.com.
