by Dave Palmer, General Partner at Ten Eleven Ventures
Ten Eleven exists to provide high-value, cyber-focused counsel, capital, and connections to brilliant security entrepreneurs. We understand the unique problems security entrepreneurs face because we’ve been there and seen what makes the difference.
One of the things that experienced cyber practitioners understand is how important it is to have technologies that work in the messy existing real world, not just green field new architectures.
This is especially true when there are many complex stakeholders from multiple organizations involved in a project. And if some of the stakeholders come and go during the life of a product or ecosystem that you are trying to protect, then the difficulty of successfully delivering security escalates dramatically.
As an example, modern connected cars have a dizzying array of smart components from engines, to steering, to multi-domain sensors, to AI subsystems, to entertainment, to access control and alarming – all provided by different complex supply chains and ultimately owned and maintained by a frequently changing set of individuals and businesses. Managing the safe and secure identity, control, and interaction of all these subsystems and the overall car is not a trivial problem. And none of us wants an unauthorized individual to be able to unlock and drive off in our beloved vehicles!
Device Authority is a wonderful example of a company that understands and is solving these complex problems, in the right way. They have built a technology called KeyScaler that entirely automates identity security to enable complete IoT device and data trust.
The KeyScaler platform provides 9 Core Capabilities essential to achieving Zero Trust in your connected operations:
While many IoT platform vendors claim their functionality enables easy device enrolments and security management, most platforms provide open and flexible interfaces and shift the responsibility to customers to adopt the right integration and policies as per their company requirements. Without automation, managing the full lifecycle of connected infrastructure such as IoT devices, or OT devices on your factory floor, opens your organization to significant cyber risk. Tedious manual processes lead to human error, slow responses to cyber projects or incidents, and introduce the potential for supply chain disruptions across complex stakeholders. KeyScaler establishes device and data trust across your supply chain through fully automated Device Identity Lifecycle Management.
Fundamentally this is a foundational layer of security that creates a solid building block for customer products and services. By building things that we know to be safe we reduce incidents and the cost of being secure, and KeyScaler offers this for the entire lifecycle of devices from creation, delivery, potential ownership changes throughout a product’s life, and ultimately to safe decommissioning.
Crucially the technology already scales to some of the biggest customers in the world and is built into safety-critical systems like vehicles, engines, medical ecosystems, and high-performance factories.
Getting a product like KeyScaler right needs a team that truly understands customer’s challenges & complexity, and is capable of delivering at a global scale alongside vital partners like Microsoft’s Azure IoT. We knew at our first meeting that CEO Darron Antill and CTO James Penney are something special, and subsequently, we’ve met an impressive team across the UK/USA that boasts an incredible depth of experience from prior careers in Microsoft, EMC, Computacenter, Oracle, and Sage. They are supported by many advisors and non-executives including William (Bill) Crowell formerly of the NSA, and Tim Eades formerly CEO of vArmour. Together this team understands first-hand how important it is to protect the real-world devices that underpin our society.
We are thrilled that Ten Eleven has led the Series A and look forward to working together with everyone at Device Authority.
I am incredibly excited to announce that I have joined the Device Authority team this week as a VP Sales and Business Development for North America. Having been involved for many years now within the IoT industry, I understand the significance of cybersecurity gaps and challenges surrounding devices deployed for critical infrastructure which directly affects everyone. Whether it be the energy we rely on, the water we drink, the food we eat or the manufacturing facilities that create the solutions we consume in our everyday lives.
