Much of our computer time is spent in a web browser, where we check emails, create documents, transfer files, do online banking, shop, or stream entertainment. This leaves us vulnerable to security threats like phishing, identity theft and session hijacking, but many cybersecurity tools were created when the main threats were file viruses, worms and network attacks, he said. Vivek Ramachandranthe entrepreneur and cybersecurity researcher who discovered the Cafe Latte Attack.
To combat browser-based vulnerabilities, Ramachandran founded SquareX. The Singapore-based cybersecurity startup announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed funding from Southeast Asia’s Sequoia Capital, which it will use on R&D engineering and its commercialization plans.
SquareX wants to serve as an alternative to current cybersecurity products by being tailor-made for browser-based cloud SaaS tools. It integrates with browsers as an extension and allows users to open links and files in disposable browsers that serve as temporary container sandboxes. Interfaceless browsers run in SquareX data centers, so threats don’t reach users’ computers and they don’t need to worry about exposing their personal information.
Before launching SquareX, Ramachandran was the founder of Pentester Academy, a cloud-based cybersecurity training startup that allows users and businesses to study how hackers break into their business. Pentester Academy was acquired by the INE in 2021.
Vivek Ramachandran, founder of SquareX
Ramachandran told TechCrunch that while he was running Pentester Academy, his clients complained about how often users disabled their security products because it interfered with their productivity. For example, someone in the process of receiving an important Word document from a contact would have that file marked as malware and end up disabling security software in order to view it. As a result, Ramachandran realized that many security products actually backfire because they make people less likely to use them.
As a result, he created SquareX, which doesn’t block access to files or resources, even when they’ve been categorized as potentially malicious. Instead, it uses your disposable browsers. Ramachandran said that SquareX is intended to be an alternative to VPN, antivirus, antimalware, and other endpoint security solutions.
SquareX disposable browsers allow anonymous browsing from any location. Users can “get rid” of it at any time, which means no data is retained and the browser session is destroyed and removed from SquareX’s servers immediately. Ramachandran said it is safer and more private than incognito mode because the websites the user visits or the files they download are not stored on the user’s computer.
“By creating disposable environments, SquareX ensures that a user’s identity and data are decoupled when accessing the Internet,” he added. “This ensures that even the most sophisticated website trackers cannot track and record user activities and link them to their identity.”
SquareX’s go-to-market strategy will focus first on the US, UK and Asia.
In a statement on the funding, Anandamoy Roychowdhary, a Surge partner at Sequoia Southeast Asia, said: “The online world is about to get much worse as the AI revolution is channeled into creating malicious code. All cybersecurity solutions out there are only probabilistically successful in protecting internet users, which isn’t much of a comfort if they get hacked and lose money. SquareX is the first solution we’ve seen that takes a 100% protection approach, where no matter how new and sophisticated the attack is, it has no chance of infecting users. This is the future we believe all Internet users deserve.”
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