Safety Detectives: Please share your company background, how you got started, and your mission.
Allure Security Technology: Allure Security Technology was originally spun out of the Columbia University Intrusion Detection Lab (IDS) and founded in late 2009 as an R&D company specializing in AI machine learning algorithms applied to help solve very hard security problems. DARPA primarily funded the company’s R&D activities for about 7 years when the company then transitioned to a commercial product company. The core technologies centered on the insider threat, detecting when either internal users go bad, or external attackers gained access to internal accounts by stealing credentials. One of the key areas involved the use of deceptive materials to detect attacker behaviors as well as to mislead attackers to steal nothing of value. Over the course of several years, the company focused on the core problem of how attackers steal credentials in the first place. Our mission is to stop account takeover using a collection of techniques including advanced Machine Learning to spot fake websites and to rapidly take them down. While waiting for a website to be taken down, the company’s deception technology is deployed to flood the attacker’s website with fake data.
SD: What is the main service your company offers?
AST: We scan a number of sources to identify imposter websites and rapidly take them down or render them harmless.
SD: What is something unique that helps you stay ahead of your competition?
AST: Our competency in machine learning over decades of R&D allows the company to rapidly develop and deploy new functionality leveraging AI.
SD: What do you think are the worst cyberthreats today?
AST: All cyberthreats are problematic especially when nation-states condone or even encourage highly sophisticated e-criminals to launch account takeover attacks to gain footholds into networks for various nefarious purposes.