Oversubscribed by SCV: Hank Takes a Digital Detox 📱

Last week, I didn’t go on a tech free vacation looking to deny foreign governments or tech companies the luxury of continuous data collection on my phone and laptop…

Digital Detox: Forced Opt-Out from Persistent Surveillance

By: Hank Thomas

I did it to celebrate my wife’s birthday and to recharge. Being off the internet for five days was our goal, and the first thing I discovered was just how hard it was to accomplish this.

Our hotel used WhatsApp to communicate with guests to coordinate everything. For a second we thought about just not participating and figuring it out, but that would have meant almost none of the amenities available. Turns out, luxury getaways have devolved into a connected application.

Self discipline kicked in, and I limited my phone usage to WhatsApp only. I stuck to this for five days, but the addictive power of the applications on our phones became more real to me than ever before. Before this experiment, I had honestly never gone five days without my smartphone in the modern era. What I found is that you can feel the apps you rely on daily reeling you back into their addictive habit loops, and it was more alarming than I expected.

Through this experiment I was left with no doubt that the computers in our pockets are the most powerful weapon in the world for both collecting data, but also controlling us. The idea that data is the new oil is something we’ve been hearing for decades. At first we probably all just thought it was a catchy phrase for some K Street lobbyist trying to pump their data-driven tech. However, over the past few years this has become more than just a marketing campaign.

Data mining is rampaging our tech devices and digital lives every minute of the day. Data is invaluable, and unlimited resources are being thrown at making our tech habits more addictive by the day. When data mining fails to extract every aspect of our digital lives, foreign governments and surveillance capitalists send a big white spy balloon over us to scavenge for the scraps they missed.

Like any intelligence gathering or information warfare operation (and let’s be clear, that is what both big tech and foreign governments alike are doing) of the pre-big data collection era, raw, siloed data is of little value until it is linked and given context within a larger data portrait. Starving the data miners of as much access to the data field is what hurts their bank accounts, intelligence gathering, and mind control operations the most.

There are very few bipartisan issues Americans can rally around anymore. Sensible legislation that mitigates the power of surveillance capitalism and surveillance states to gather our data and deploy addictive tools on our devices to control us is needed. Collected data being utilized to target consumers into thinking they need a new car when they don’t is one thing, but adversarial foreign governments having the ability to divide Americans and control our thoughts is another.

This is happening right now, to you, to us. The amazing American innovation ecosystem needs to do more to build tools that give us all of the features and functionality we now expect and demand from our technology, without giving up our privacy in return. The algorithms being used by foreign governments and surveillance capitalism are as addictive as any opioid, let’s treat them that way before it is too late.

There are tools that can help the population gain control of their data. That’s why we have invested in several tools at SCV that make data capture more difficult for both surveillance capitalism and states.

Impervious is a great example of a company that helps their customers regain control of their data, identity, and communications. They created a bitcoin lightning-native web browser that connects a Lightning node to enable streaming payments between peers and to optionally route messaging data.

In conclusion, I encourage you to try a similar experiment and take a vacation from technology to really understand the power of the addictive mind control and data collection weapon in your pocket. Bring a burner device with you if there is an emergency or give your loved ones the hotel phone number. Above all, don’t give yourself an excuse to check your smartphone.

Events our team is attending…

• The 14th Annual Billington Cybersecurity Summit that is taking place September 5–8, 2023, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
• Polarity and SnapAttack are sponsoring at mWISE 2023 Cybersecurity Conference! The event is located at the Marriott Marquis in DC, from September 18–20th, 2023. Want to join us there? Register here.
• Identity Week on October 3–4 2023 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC.
• CYBERWARCON in Arlington, VA on Thursday, Nov. 9th, 2023.
• The CATO Live Webcast December 9, 2021 from 1:00 PM — 2:00 PM EST.

Job Opportunities in our Portfolio 💼

MASH has an amazing role open in Marketing. Check it out here:

• Marketing Role: They are looking for an amazing marketer to join the Mash team. You’ll be responsible for building out their core marketing function & motions, efforts across growth, product and brand marketing — and the entire customer life-cycle. With this role, you will be reporting directly to Mash’s CEO. If you want to learn more, apply here.

Black Hat/DEFCON Recap, Great Event, Better Connections

We had an incredible dinner at Black Hat co-hosted by Lytical Ventures! A big shoutout to Lucas Nelson for co-hosting, and immense gratitude to all who joined, making the evening a resounding success.

Cybersecurity Finance Update

Here’s some new fundings to check out:

• Arpio, a Durham, N.C.-based developer of cybersecurity software designed to protect and restore #AWS environments so that no time is wasted worrying about outages and ransomware, raised $7.98 million of seed funding in a deal led by S3 Ventures and Companyon Ventures. CreativeCo Capital and 5 other undisclosed investors also participated in the round.
• Tausight, a Burlington, Ma.-based developer of a security software designed to reduce healthcare cyber incidents by using proactive and risk management philosophy, raised $6 million of Series A-2 venture funding in a deal led by Polaris Partners. Flare Capital Partners and .406 Ventures also participated in the round.
• UncommonX, a Chicago, Il.-based developer of advanced network security software designed to offer real-time cyber threat protection, raised $4.38 million of venture funding through combination of debt and equity from Spring Creek Partners and other undisclosed investors.
• Metabase Q, a San Francisco-based #cybersecuritystartup that says it focuses on protecting multi-national corporations in Latin America, announced $3 million in Series A funding Friday, led by existing investor SYN Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including former President and COO of Mandiant (now part of Google Cloud), John Watters.
• OX Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based operator of a security platform intended to secure the modern software supply chain from vulnerabilities, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from IBM Ventures.
• SpyCloud, an Austin, Tex.-based digital identity protection company, raised $110 million in funding. Riverwood Capital led the round.
• Stellar Cyber, a San Jose, Ca.-based developer of an open XDR platform designed to characterize every aspect of modern attacks while remaining intuitive to understand, raised $20.49 million of Series C venture funding from undisclosed investors.
• Cerby, an Alameda, Calif.-based access management platform for nonstandard applications, raised $17 million in Series A funding. Two Sigma Ventures led the round and was joined by Outpost Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Founders Fund, Bowery Capital, and others.
• Cypago, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of a platform that helps organizations adopt, implement, and maintain security standards, raised $13 million in funding. Entrée Capital, Axon Ventures, and Jump Capital led the round and were joined by Ariel Maislos, Prof. Ehud Weinstein, and Ofir Shalvi.
• Trail of Bits, a New York, NY-based operator of an information security company created to reduce risk and fortify code, raised $4 million of seed funding in a deal led by Mischief. Mantis VC, Altman Capital, Parameter Ventures, and The Box Group also participated in the round.
• PRIBIT Technology, a Seoul, South Korea-based provider of communication and network security services intended to focus on future information transportation system investment and research, raised $3 million of seed funding from DSC Investment, SW Investment and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund.
• CipherStash, a Sydney, Australia-based operator of a searchable encryption platform intended to encrypt sensitive data, raised $2.92 million of venture funding from undisclosed investors.
• Groupsense, an Arlington, Va.-based developer of privacy file systems designed to secure cloud data, raised $225,000 of venture funding from undisclosed investors.

Check out these articles around funding in Cybersecurity 💵

Saudi Arabia Investment is increasing in U.S. based startups

Houston-based Axiom Spacelocked up a $350 million roundled by Saudi Arabia’s Aljazira Capital — its first investment in a U.S.-based startup, per Crunchbase data.

Read More Here

This Weeks 10 Biggest Funding Rounds in Cybersecurity

Recently, eight funding rounds surpassed the hundred million dollar mark, with three of them exceeding $250 million.

Read More Here

Like what you see? 🙌 As always, we’ll be back with great content every month.

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ABOUT SCV
Back in 2016, SCV embarked on its mission from Washington, D.C. Our mission? Enhancing national security by funding cybersecurity startups. But we go beyond just writing a check. Each day, we bridge the gap between cybersecurity experts and the venture capital community, offering founders opportunities to grow with our dedicated time and resources.

To delve further into our journey and information about our portfolio, explore www.scvgroup.com or Connect with us on Twitter @SCV_Cyber to be part of our mission in shaping the future of cybersecurity.