Glasgow-based startup Lupovis and cybersecurity which spin-out from the University of Strathclyde is today announcing a pre-seed funding round of over €700k from a syndicate co-led by Techstart Ventures and Nauta Capital, which also include investment from the subject University.
Lupovis was founded in June 2021 by ‘Xavier Bellekens’ and is also known as a startup that has created a dynamic deception solution that leads cyber attackers and ransomware away from high-value assets while delivering a protective defence, as such, turns the “hunter into the hunted“.
Going forward, the latest fundraise is expected to be used by the startup in two dimensions, firstly, for the startup’s team expansion that will, on the other hand, enhance the functionalities of Lupovis’s platform, even as it emerges as Scotland’s fastest-growing cybersecurity. However, the subject platform is known as a software-based innovation that provides an artificial intelligence-driven deception environment that enables the definition and execution of pro-active cyber-attack mitigation strategies. In addition to that, the platform also allows early cyber-attack identification, dynamic management and classification.
It should be borne in mind that experts have predicted that the global costs associated with cybercrime are estimated to reach €9 trillion by 2025 while noting that organizations are estimated to be targeted with ransomware every 11 seconds. As such, cyber defences have, therefore, never been more critical. To ascertain the product’s functionality, the CEO Bellekens made clear that the Lupovis system “uses artificial intelligence to create scenarios which mirror the existing infrastructure of an organization and engages the attacker into believing they are progressing towards assets of value, turning networks from a flock of sheep to a pack of wolves”. The startup’s which was curbed out of Latin words, wolf (lupus) and sheep (Ovis), is structured to offer attackers incentives that steer them on a certain path.
Meanwhile, the subject platform deploys a network of collaborative decoys aimed at luring the attacker away from assets, be it personal data or sensitive information, even prevent’s hackers from trying to shut down systems aimed at damaging business continuity. As soon as an adversary has penetrated a network, the system automatically entices them by creating an offensive deception environment, which engages the attacker from the very minute an attempt was made within the network. Equally, its deception framework is believed to be embedded with manipulation and gamification methodologies, this meant the engagement of the hacker is maintained with a sequence of fau targets, decoys and honeypots that guide the breach along network paths, away from valuable targets.
In view of this, the CEO Bellekens equally noted that the platform is in “a unique position where we have unrivalled data on attacker techniques, methods and behaviour. We will feed this data into our platform, so our customers will always remain one step ahead of attackers, predicting their next move, long before they actually make it”.
Furthermore, it’s worth noting that the subject platform is poised to keep organizations businesses secured and uninterrupted, owing to the fact that business continuity is significant, yet, the platform will in the process gather information on the hacker’s skills and strategies, and, in turn, inform digital security teams of the optimal countermeasures to confront the hacker. This helps to maintain the operational integrity of the organization.
Nonetheless, prior to this development, startup Lupovis had raised funding from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Cyber Security Academic Start-ups Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP), and hopes to translate academic research in cyber protection to commercial opportunities.
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