A lot of our laptop time is spent in an internet browser, the place we test emails, create paperwork, switch recordsdata, perform on-line banking, store or stream leisure. This leaves us susceptible to safety threats like phishing, id theft and session hijacking, however many cybersecurity instruments have been created when the principle threats have been file viruses, worms and community assaults, mentioned Vivek Ramachandran, the cybersecurity entrepreneur and researcher who found the Cafe Latte assault.

To fight browser-based vulnerabilities, Ramachandran based SquareX. The Singapore-based cybersecurity startup introduced at present it has raised $6 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, which it should use on R&D engineering and its go-to-market plans.

SquareX desires to function a substitute for present cybersecurity merchandise by being tailored for browser-based cloud SaaS instruments. It integrates with browsers as an extension and lets customers open hyperlinks and recordsdata in disposable browsers that function momentary container sandboxes. The headless browsers run in SquareX’s information facilities so threats don’t attain customers’ computer systems and so they don’t want to fret about their private data being uncovered.

Earlier than launching SquareX, Ramachandran was the founding father of Pentester Academy, a cloud-based cybersecurity coaching startup that lets customers and enterprises examine how hackers break into their firm. Pentester Academy was acquired by INE in 2021.

SquareX founder Vivek Ramachandran

Ramachandran informed TechCrunch that whereas working Pentester Academy, his prospects complained about how usually their safety merchandise have been disabled by customers as a result of they obtained in the best way of their productiveness. For instance, somebody within the means of receiving of an vital Phrase doc from a contact would have that file flagged as malware and would find yourself disabling safety software program with a purpose to view it. In consequence, Ramachandran realized that many safety merchandise are literally counterproductive as a result of they make folks much less probably to make use of them.

In consequence, he created SquareX, which doesn’t block entry to recordsdata or sources, even once they have been categorized as doubtlessly malicious. As a substitute, it makes use of its disposable browsers. Ramachandran mentioned SquareX is meant as a various to VPN, anti-virus, anti-malware and different endpoint safety options.

SquareX’s disposable browsers allow nameless looking from any location. Customers can “dispose” of it at anytime, which implies no information is retained and the browser session is destroyed and faraway from SquareX’s servers instantly. Ramachandran mentioned it’s safer and extra personal than incognito mode as a result of web sites the consumer visits or recordsdata they obtain don’t get saved of their laptop.

“By creating disposable environments, SquareX ensures {that a} consumer’s id and information is decoupled when accessing the web,” he added. “This ensures that even essentially the most subtle web site trackers would fail to trace and log the customers actions and tie it to their id.”

SquareX’s go-to-market technique will deal with america, the UK and Asia first.

In an announcement concerning the funding, Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Surge associate at Sequoia Southeast Asia, mentioned, “The web world is about to get a complete lot worse because the AI revolution will get channeled in direction of constructing malicious code. Each cybersecurity answer out there may be solely probabilistically profitable in defending web customers, which isn’t of a lot consolation in the event that they get hacked and lose cash. SquareX is the primary answer we’ve seen that takes a 100% safety method–the place no matter how new and complex the assault is, it has no likelihood to contaminate customers. That is the long run we expect all web customers deserve.”