Area 1 Security raises $25 million for AI tools to protect against phishing

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/29/area-1-security-raises-25-million-for-ai-tools-to-protect-against-phishing/

By Kyle Wiggers
VentureBeat
June 29, 2020

Area 1 Security, a cybersecurity company offering AI-driven protection 
against phishing attacks, has raised a $25 million round. A spokesperson 
said the funding will accelerate R&D and the expansion of Area 1’s 
go-to-market resources, with a particular focus on an “aggressive 
multi-tier channel strategy.” This comes after a sixth-month period when 
the startup claims to have saved $273 million in active financial cyber 
fraud and blocked millions of phishing attempts.

According to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, nearly 
one-third of all data breaches involved phishing in one way or another. 
That’s likely because users have a tendency to fall for such attacks. 
KnowBe4 reports that 38% of employees who don’t undergo cyber awareness 
training fail phishing tests. Problematically, the pandemic appears to 
have worsened the onslaught, with companies like Google suggesting 
millions of COVID-19-related phishing scams are being perpetrated daily.

Area 1 has an interesting history. The company was incorporated in 2013 by 
Oren Falkowitz, Blake Darché, and Phil Syme, who were formerly employed by 
the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In December 2018, Area 1 revealed 
a Chinese government cyber campaign targeting over 100 intergovernmental 
organizations, ministries of foreign affairs, ministries of finance, trade 
unions, and think tanks that led to the breach of a European Union (EU) 
diplomatic communications network. In January 2020, the company uncovered 
a Russian government phishing campaign targeting Burisma Holdings and its 
subsidiaries — the scandal-tied Ukrainian firm that hired former Vice 
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

Area 1’s technology attempts to prevent phishing across email, social, 
web, and network vectors by integrating with cloud suites within less than 
a day. It operates on a unique pay-per-phish model — customers only pay 
for attempts it catches — and it ostensibly identifies and stops phishing 
attempts up to 24 hours before they actually occur.

[...]

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