UPDATED 07:30 EST / JULY 19 2016

NEWS

Skycure raises $16.5M for its mobile threat sensor

Though regulating access to company data and fending off malware are two sides of the same coin when it comes to mobile security, organizations have historically had to handle the tasks separately. This decentralized approach is becoming less and less effective as hackers step up their efforts to target employee-owned devices. Fortunately, Palo Alto’s Skycure Inc. is working to bridge the gap.

The startup raised $16.5 million from a group of backers led by Foundation Capital LLC today to widen the adoption of its namesake threat detection system, which aims to harmonize mobile security. The main component of Skycure’s offering is a scanner that workers can download from the App Store or Google Play and install like any other app. Once it’s up and running, the software starts monitoring the host device for malware such as the Hummingbad virus that was recently found to have infected millions of Android devices. It also looks for vulnerabilities in user’s operating system, applications and network that might enable hackers to gain remote access.

In this regard, Skycure isn’t all that different from the more established endpoint protection products out there. Where the software sets itself apart is in the third party integration department. It can plug into a company’s backend enterprise mobile management (EMM) platform to turn the local scanner into a policy enforcement mechanism. The functionality enables organizations to have the app automatically prevent an employee from accessing work applications if a virus or a vulnerability is found on their device. Administrators are thus spared the hassle of manually addressing policy violations, which frees up time while speeding up incident response times in the process. The end-result is that hackers are left with much less time to try and steal sensitive information than they would have normally.

Skycure claims that its platfornm’s value proposition has won over several Fortune 500 companies since its previous $8 million funding round in March 2015. Today’s investment brings the outfit’s total raised to a healthy $27.5 million. It plans to spend the new capital on expanding its presence in Europe and Asia and developing new security functionality.

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