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Cube 5

Creating IT Security Startups

StartUpSecure

| Funding, StartUpSecure

Startup Identeco gets StartUpSecure funding of 770,000 euros

As part of the “StartUpSecure” initiative, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has been funding the Bonn-based company for one year since June 2023. Identeco was founded in 2020 by Dr. Matthias Wübbeling and Prof. Dr. Michael Meier. The startup protects companies and accounts of customers and employees in the B2B sector from account takeovers.

The two founders know each other through their work at the University of Bonn and conducted research together between 2017 and 2020 on a BMBF project, whereby their subjects first encouraged the results to be made available as a service. Matthias Wübbeling did his PhD at the University of Bonn and Michael Meier holds the Chair of IT Security at the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Bonn and is head of the Cyber Security Department at Fraunhofer FKIE. In an interview with Cube 5, Matthias Wübbeling answered five questions for us.

logo identeco

How do you secure more than 100 million accounts from being taken over by criminals?

Actually, we help our clients to protect their accounts. These are usually accounts on online platforms such as social media, shops or layalty programmes. We search the depths of the internet for users’ login data. These are exchanged and traded there and then misused by criminals for attacks. After analysis by our systems, our customers can then effectively prevent abuse within their own infrastructure and thus provide a secure platform for consumers. This ensures trust in the platform and strengthens the loyalty of our customers.

What differences did you notice from science to business?

Companies often have different requirements for services for a demonstrator or a proof-of-principle in research. We had to completely redevelop the entire framework – our analysis pipeline, the backend software and the appliance – for our buyers in order to meet the high security requirements of our clientele.

What have been your biggest challenges so far?

We are all computer scientists. This means that we know our solution very well and do good work, but selling it to international companies and corporations is a very different business. Here we had to learn two things in particular: “Companies don’t always buy the best product on the market” and “We don’t have to sell a product by our performance alone, but also by our company name”. Today, Identeco itself is a good brand in the IT security market. A good three years after our founding, we have many regular customers, some of whom have been with us since the beginning and continue to renew our services and book additional services.

In which area of your business will the funding be particularly helpful?

The funding flows primarily into development. As providers in the IT security sector, we must have a secure software environment ourselves. We need performant infrastructures – after all, we have more than 30 billion entries in our database, which is searched several hundred times a day – and we have to invest in education and documentation for our customers and consumers. In addition, we are still looking for more test subjects for our products. Since leaked login data poses a massive threat to all industries and sectors, but different requirements exist in each industry, we still have many requirements to collect and implement so that we can soon protect all accounts in companies and on platforms.

How can Cube 5 continue to support you in the future?

Cube 5 supported us very well from the very beginning. From the first sketch of request to the final application. Many thanks at this point. And it doesn’t stop after the application. Through Cube 5, we are part of the SpeedUpSecure Accelerator, where we receive a lot of valuable input for our business development. In addition, we were recently guests at the Cube 5 stand at Digital Demo Day in Düsseldorf for the second time and are always in contact with potential customers via the Cube 5 network.

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Federal Ministry of Education and Research (in German): StartUpSecure  
Startup: https://identeco.de/

| Funding, StartUpSecure

Startup Radix Security secures StartUpSecure funding

The Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) is funding the Bochum-based IT security startup with a volume of 517,000 euros for one year.

With their technology, the Radix Security team aims to establish common security standards in 5G mobile networks and provide tools that enable in-depth and automated security evaluation of network components.
 
Radix Security was founded by Katharina Kohls and David Rupprecht: Rupprecht received his doctorate in 2020 at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. His doctoral thesis focused on securing 4G and 5G networks. During his research he found several implementation and specification vulnerabilities in current mobile networks. Katharina Kohls is a professor in the Digital Security Group at Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen (NL) and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Ruhr University Bochum. Her research focuses on the security of distributed infrastructures such as mobile networks or anonymity systems.
 
With Cube 5, the two have a long history.They are familiar with the large network of founders at the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security and participated in the five-month incubator program inCUBE in 2022. Most recently, founder Dr. David Rupprecht spoke extensively in RUB News about 5G and its special applications.

Funding in two phases 
In two funding phases, the BMBF supports from the idea to the foundation of a company. In the first phase, the development phase, teams work out how the idea can be technically implemented. In Phase 2 it is important as a newly founded company to concretize the business model and business concept.

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BMBF Homepage for StartUpSecure  
Project information: https://www.forschung-it-sicherheit-kommunikationssysteme.de/projekte/gprotect
Company website: https://radix-security.com/
 

| StartUpSecure

AI startup ai.dopt receives StartUpSecure funding

Foundation, team expansion and new funding – an eventful time lies behind the AI startup ai.dopt. In an interview with André Bluhm, Max Hamscher, Fabrizio Ronca and Martina Schuster, we review the past months.
aidopt 001
André Bluhm, Martina Schuster, Max Hamscher and Fabrizio Ronca (from left) from ai.dopt. Copyright: Michael Schwettmann

Before we talk about recent developments, can you briefly describe what solution ai.dopt offers in the field of artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence (AI) holds enormous potential to change the way we work and do business. But implementing AI projects is challenging – especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition to financial and human resources, there is often a lack of expertise in topics such as IT security and data protection. We offer easy and secure access to AI-powered value creation for all companies. Our software solution enables the secure application of artificial intelligence – without prior knowledge and with just a few clicks. This means that the existing expert knowledge in the company, e.g. on existing data, can be used efficiently and in a way that adds value.

You all originally come from southern Germany. How did you end up in the Ruhr area and at the Ruhr-Universität?

As a team, we have known each other for a very long time and very well, as we already worked together in different constellations before ai.dopt. The idea to found ai.dopt came up during a phase in which we were all busy with our master’s or doctoral theses. During this time, the Ruhr University Bochum with the start-up center of the World Factory Bochum was also recommended to us by the start-up we were friends with – Lidrotec GmbH. As a team, we were open to which city we would go to, so we evaluated Bochum as the perfect location for us in the field of IT security. In October 2021, we received funding of € 240,000 through the “Start-up Transfer.NRW” funding program and were able to start as part of the “Pandia” research project with Prof. Dr. Thorsten Berger at the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr University Bochum.

How would you rate your time at the RUB?

As a complete success. Here we designed and developed a prototype. We were also able to win our first customers and development partners. At the same time, the RUB with its ecosystem and the institutions located here, such as the Horst Görtz Institute, the Max Planck Institute, and the cybersecurity incubator Cube 5, were important points of contact for us when it came to starting up. Last April, ai.dopt GmbH was founded as a research spin-off from the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, which has already created 10 jobs.

aidopt 003
The software solution from ai.dopt enables the safe application of artificial intelligence. Copyright: Michael Schwettmann

How did you get to know Bochum and its ecosystem?

The open-mindedness, sociability and down-to-earthness that is said to characterize the people in the Ruhr region is something we have definitely encountered here right from the start. We benefit greatly from the contacts and networks that have opened up for us in the past year.

Where do you currently stand?

At the moment, our focus is on testing the software with various development partners from research and pilot customers from industry. In October, we were able to acquire a grant of € 737,000 through the StartUpSecure program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which was another important milestone for us.

What’s next for you?

We will definitely remain loyal to Bochum. In addition to the funding from the StartUpSecure program, the Bochum Economic Development Agency has accepted us into the Startup Incubator WERK X. Here we receive funding of another € 33,000 and new great office space in the middle of Bochum’s city center. On this basis, we can now further expand our team. To this end, we are also looking for students as interns or working students – of course also from the RUB.

ai.dopt Homepage

| Press Report

Accelerator SpeedUpSecure 2022: Closing event and award ceremony

Ten particularly innovative startups from all over Germany qualified for the “SpeedUpSecure” accelerator program for cybersecurity startups. From the beginning of February to the end of March, they benefited from a targeted training program and were accompanied by mentors from the business world. At the final event, the ten startups presented their young company and technology in a five-minute pitch to a top-class jury and an audience of experts. The three winning teams were awarded prize money totaling EUR 5,000.

Cybersecurity and privacy protection are more important today than ever. To be able to protect against new and more complex attacks, it requires forward-looking ideas and innovations. Startups play a special role in this. They have set themselves the task of strengthening the cyber security of business and society with new solutions. The innovative power of the still young companies became clear at the final pitch event of the accelerator for cybersecurity startups “SpeedUpSecure”, which took place on 23.3.2022. The pitch was made in front of a top-class jury consisting of representatives* of the companies asvin, EnBW, infodas, Lufthansa, Ottobock, SpeedInvest and Xariva Ventures as well as a major German sporting goods manufacturer.

Ten ambitious startups at the final pitch event
Each of the ten startups offers an innovative solution to the diverse, new challenges in cybersecurity. For example, securing against threats posed by the increasing digitization of households. Startup Bitahoy has developed a plug-and-play network security system to make smart homes secure and protect privacy.

Cloud is another strong trend that brings new attack scenarios. Two startups in the program are making the cloud more secure: CodeShield analyzes cloud infrastructures from the attacker’s perspective and generates concrete attack scenarios within the cloud. The startup Resility enables secure and resilient cloud infrastructures with its Mitigant solution through new approaches from research, such as the use of security chaos engineering.

Artificial intelligence techniques such as machine learning enable new approaches to cybersecurity, which the startup DeepSign knows how to use to constantly verify a user’s identity based on their mouse and keyboard usage.

Another technology trend is blockchain, but with some drawbacks that the startup PolyCrypt addresses. It stands for acceleration, scalability and simplification of blockchain usage with increased privacy protection, as well as seamless connection of different blockchain ecosystems.

Examining existing applications for vulnerabilities and quality deficiencies with new methods and fixing them is also emerging as an IT security trend. How does one proceed, for example, if the software used is not available in source code and is thus hardly human-readable? The startup Langlauf Security Automation develops solutions for this: The young team of entrepreneurs offers practical security quality assurance for both supplied and self-developed software. LocateRisk offers an approach to scan the IT security situation via the Internet, i.e. from the outside and also without additional effort by administrators of the facilities under consideration. The analysis based on the non-invasive scan shows cyber risks and the presentation of results is thereby easy to understand for everyone.

The trend for particularly high IT security is also intensifying in the current situation – here, too, specialized startups are making their contribution. With immune’s solution, companies can harden servers and PCs with an automated, AI-supported analysis of the hardware and firmware in order to operate them according to high security standards. The startup Quantum Optics Jena uses the laws of quantum physics to provide innovative solutions for quantum-secured encryption and information transmission. Using lasers and via optical fiber, secrets can be generated and transmitted.

In the field of incident response and digital forensics, analyzing computers still running at the scene of suspicion or crime and securing evidence is a major challenge for companies and law enforcement agencies. Trufflepig Forensics makes working memory analysis methods more efficient and expands the possibilities of finding evidence.

Winners of the final pitch event
In addition to innovation, the jury also evaluated other factors such as the business model or the team. Three startups were able to particularly convince the jury.
The startup Quantum Optics Jena won the first prize of 2,500 euros. The jury based its decision on the fact that deep tech has the strongest impact in the long term and sees great potential for it both here in Europe and worldwide. Founder Dr. Kevin Füchsel expressed his gratitude by saying, “Many thanks to the SpeedUpSecure team for the accelerator program. Together with the supporting Expert:in and the sponsor, a great format has been created. We hope that many more teams from universities and research institutions will learn the basics of entrepreneurship here and thus realize their visions faster.”

The startup DeepSign made it to the second prize of 1,500 euros. According to the jury, the innovative solution has the potential to abolish passwords. The startup LocateRisk received the third prize of 1,000 euros. The jury thus honored the Innovative solution to make cybersecurity and risks measurable from the outside and to provide corresponding figures.

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award ceremony speedupsecure

Photo (from left): Dr. Alexander Schellong, infodas, Nils Vossebein (DeepSign), Dr. Kevin Füchsel (Quantum Optics Jena), Lukas Baumann (LocateRisk), Carlina Bennison (StartUpSecure I ATHENE)