4 Months Behind Us, 4 Security Startups Founded — What Are They Up To?

In four months four new security startups have seen the daylight. Over ten people suffering from megalomania are set out to make their mark. Let’s take a peek what the new kids on the block are up to.

SensorFu — Born 2017–02–09

Seal your security policies with continuous audit sensors.

Leaked SensorFu Concept Pictures.

Imagine a lock that starts loosening up immediately after you close it. With secured and audited IT-systems, this can easily happen. It can be a pain to get a system to a specific security level — making sure it stays there… yuck! Today, the alternatives vary from cramming through daily scans (which still do not cover everything you have) to hoping for the best.

SensorFu aims to improve your network configuration and upkeep your security achievements. What if you could be sure all the time that the most important policies are met? You would only be notified if they are not. How about if the solid foundation you just got would give you the breathing room to continue improvements? This is what SensorFu promises. How? With extreme focus on the policies instead of the tech to name one. That’s going to be a bit hard because the crew has a fresh and interesting technical approach to meet many of their goals: easy to deploy, cost effective so that you can cover hundreds of network segments, ability to cover different cloud environments, etc. Lets hope we don’t get carried away — if you see us making an ad where @oherrala is writing Sigung -level networking Kung Fu code with his editor, you’ll know that we failed to resist the temptation. (Apple fails this way too sometimes, like in this ad.)

Ossi writing networking Kung Fu code like a Sigung.

Cyblem — Born 2016–12–27

Cyblem exports the Finnish nation-wide approach to cybersecurity.

Having the cleanest network in the world means that not many attacks come from Finland. We don’t brag about it, but we love to help others to achieve the same. (Map by FreeVectorMaps.com)

Did you know that according to a number of reports, such as Microsoft’s SIR, Finland has one of the least infected networks in the world? One reason for it is that Finland has “pretty good” (this is the highest praise in Finland) cyber fire department and active collaboration between the government and critical infrastructure organisations. As a result, different nation states turn their eyes towards Finland when they want to achieve clean networks in their countries.

I proposed a slogan for them: “Problem Oriented Solutions”. They slapped me on the head.

That got the Cyblem founders thinking. During the 15 years of building cyber capabilities for Finland the Cyblem team has solved massive challenges with very limited resources. This has forced them to deeply understand nation-grade solutions, and maybe more importantly the problems too. (I proposed a slogan for them: “Problem Oriented Solutions”. They slapped me on the head.)

Cyblem exports the Finnish approach to cybersecurity. They help customers to compare their capabilities to best of breed solutions, build tailored cyber implementation roadmaps, and provide second opinions for the cyber security offerings. Their customers are forward-looking cyber defenders from both government organisations and critical infrastructure enterprises.

HowNetworks — Born 2016–10–19

HowNetWorks empowers private citizens to hold on to their net neutrality.

Leaked URI:teller concept pictures. We applaud HowNetWorks for beating SensorFu in drawing skills.

HowNetWorks is in some sense a mirror image of SensorFu. SensorFu ensures that security policies in critical systems are in place, while HowNetworks empowers private citizens to hold on to their net neutrality. We keep the crews in separate rooms in order to prevent uncontrolled thermonuclear fusion from happening. This is especially hard, when one of the founders have a stake at both companies. Blast range is about 500km from Oulu, so Helsinki, you are safe! Kemi, Tornio, and Haparanda, SE — start packing.

HowNetWorks is the first of the bunch aiming to provide services for the general public. The crew has always been about democratising the security, letting the users to participate in security decisions in a non-intrusive way.

HNW’s first order of business was to release a tool called URI:teller. It shows who follows the links you pasted to a supposedly private place, such as private chat of your favourite chat app. Telegram already got fixed thanks to the tool. A dent in the universe! Yay! URI:teller now enjoys continuous visits, so we are happy about how it turned out.

Ääkköset — Born 2016–10–07

Ääkköset finds and invests in inspiring innovations driven by true entrepreneurs.

Last and the least — Ääkköset Oy. Ääkköset Oy was inspired by organisations such as Y Combinator, Google Alphabet and Techstars. Ääkköset refers to Finnish special characters å, ä and ö, that have historically caused plenty of issues for IT-systems. We are happy to report that Finnish Business Information System (YTJ) survived from the company registration!

The official version Ääkköset mission is: We find and invest in inspiring innovations driven by true entrepreneurs. We accelerate the productization for making a global impact. The unofficial version is: we hang around the cool kids, and act smart to fit in. The secret version is: we need therapy — we’ve done this for 20 years for crying out loud!

Interested in following how scrappy startups from Finland grow into world-dominating megacorporations, who once got good intentions? Subscribe to the Ääkköset-publication!