Cerby closes US$3.5 million to get cybersecurity onto shady Shadow IT

Contxto – As amazing as working from home and digital accounts are, together, they represent a major risk for businesses.

To help companies cope Cerby, a cybersecurity startup, recently raised US$3.5 million for its seed round. Bowery Capital led the investment and was joined by AV8 Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and the Incubate Fund US.

Funding will serve to accelerate product development and for hiring purposes. Its first tool is currently under beta testing among a select group of Fortune 1000 companies. 

But it’s a company worth following given its fresh perspective on an ever-growing (and costly) issue.

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Cybersecurity problem 

Belsasar “Bel” Lepe and Mexican Vidal González co-founded Cerby as a startup specializing in Shadow IT management. “Shadow IT” refers to when staff use hardware, software, or cloud services that don’t necessarily have the IT department’s good blessings.

To address one of the many Shadow IT-derived problems, Cerby’s first product will help manage credential-sharing.

“There is a tremendous opportunity to build a new generation of security tools that are focused on enabling end users to do what they do naturally but ensuring it is done securely and within the guidelines of their company’s security policies,” says Lepe.

For Cerby, the biggest problem with most cybersecurity solutions is that they are not designed for end users.

In that sense, Cerby is bringing an innovative perspective to the problem.

Cybersecurity is everyone’s business, says Cerby

Credential-sharing isn’t just a risk when it comes to handling banking or financial information. Other passwords, like those for social media, have proved equally valuable.

Just imagine what it could do to a political candidate’s image for example if their account was hacked and all of a sudden they started insulting their supporters?

This is a scenario Cerby has been working to control.

“In a world where what we read on social media has the potential to be an influential news source, ensuring only trusted actors have access to the accounts behind those posts is critical. Cerby provides a unique way to ensure the entire chain of custody for access is secure and completely auditable,” says Matt Chiodi, Cerby advisor and Chief Security Officer at Public Cloud at Palo Alto Networks.

So rather than building tech for the IT guy, Cerby is concerned with making tools that work for the Community Manager, for example.

Indeed, stakeholders can no longer sideline cybersecurity as an exclusively IT-related affair. It’s something that involves everyone. More so when you consider that 80 percent of hacking-related breaches are still tied to password-related issues.

Related articles: Tech and startups from Mexico!

-ML