Thistle Technologies helps Connected Device Makers Securely and Reliably Update Firmware
Thistle Technologies, a new security company addressing the connected device market, announced $2.5 million in seed funding from True Ventures. Thistle was founded by Window Snyder, who formerly served as chief security officer at Square, Mozilla, and Fastly, in addition to chief software security officer at Intel Corporation. She’s held multiple security leadership positions at Apple and Microsoft.
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The number of connected devices in businesses, homes, industrial plants and elsewhere is exploding. Growth will continue to increase dramatically with the adoption of 5G networks. These devices, which include printers, edge IoT devices, remote systems like ATM machines, consumer electronics and automobiles are difficult to securely and reliably update because of their limited processing power and memory. In some environments the devices are too critical to operations for them to be shut down for a software update install. As a result, they are attractive targets for attackers who exploit vulnerabilities in their software. Reports have revealed that IoT devices now represent as much as one-third of malware infected devices, and more than half of IoT devices are vulnerable to medium or high-severity attacks.
While there have been advances in application security for more than 20 years, device manufacturers face serious challenges building security resilience into software. Security sensitive mechanisms, like updates, should be built and tested by an experienced security team. Thistle provides embedded device manufacturers the ability to incorporate a highly reliable and resilient implementation into their products quickly and easily.
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“True Ventures has been so supportive of our vision of democratizing product security for devices,” said Window Snyder, founder and CEO of Thistle Technologies. “We’re making it easier for device makers to deliver on their security requirements. When the update mechanism is resilient and reliable, the business can leverage that beyond security fixes to provide updates for new features with confidence. This can even open up new revenue streams for some customers. Security can be an enabler.”
“Window has so many of the qualities we look for in founders,” said Phil Black, co-founder of True Ventures. “She has deep domain expertise, is highly respected within the security’s community, and she’s driven by a deep passion to evolve her industry. What she’s building is an astute and natural next step in security’s technologies.”
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