In an effort to ensure that their site is free from a security breach, Tinfoil Security takes a hacker’s tactic to its work, minus the wicked intentions.
The startup, established by two new MIT graduates, presents automated website security with the objective of streamlining the procedure and minimizing costs for customers.
Cofounder and CEO of Tinfoil, says Ainsley Braun their looking at the website itself so that they could make sure it is secure from an outside hacker’s perspective. They have to go through the entire site looking for anywhere they can put data — forms, cookies, links — and try to exploit susceptibilities at the said areas.
The company then describe back to its customers with step-by-step solutions in fixing their sites, so they do not have to employ expensive security specialists. Prices range from $59 to $459 a month, which depends on the number of scans and other options.
Braun and chief technology officer Michael Borohovski abandon their earlier jobs in February so that they could return to Boston and begin the company following the time that they notice that a lot of the websites they were using in their personal lives had security weaknesses.
The company already has boosted around $1 million in seed funding from investors that include IDG Ventures, RTP Ventures, New York TechStars managing director David Tisch and Gil Penchina. Aside from what got mentioned above, it also took home one of the three $100,000 prizes last week at the $1 million MassChallenge startup contest.
Tinfoil is caters to small and medium-sized businesses, relying heavily on their websites in storing client information or bring in revenue. The company prepares a beta launch in a few weeks and has 400 companies scheduled to participate.
According to Borohovski, as of this moment they were using numerous open-sourced tools that we’ve essentially sawn together. They also have several custom tools that we’ve thrown into the mix in an effort to reduce false positives. The plan is to find out as much as they can without causing any harm to the site.
When Braun and Borohovski were thinking of a name that would fit their business, the computer security terms “white hat” (computer hackers with noble intentions) and “black hat” (malicious computer hackers) came to mind.
Braun said that some time ago, there was a tinfoil hat conspiracy that they are wearing so that they could protect people from aliens, and the government and them reading your brainwaves.
Ever since they have estalsihed their business, the cofounders been suspended between office space at MassChallenge in Boston and New York and Silicon Valley.