Due to easily phishable MFA (multi-factor authentication) and an abundance of malicious toolkits with the ability to intercept 2FA (two-factor authentication) codes, there is an increase in the number of compromised accounts.
Also, there is a surge in government warnings regarding ransomware and account takeover attacks. Eventually, companies have to act now.
As per reports on emerging technologies and trends for 2022, passwordless multi-factor authentication is a critical technology for “ubiquitous and transparent security” that should be adopted as soon as possible.
Beyond Identity headquartered in New York is the first and only company to provide passwordless identity management.
Attains unicorn status
In a recent development, the invisible MFA provider Beyond Identity has closed $100 million in Series C funding. With this, the total funding raised by the company is now $205 million. Also, this round values the company at $1.1 billion, thereby making it a unicorn. The investment round was led by Evolution Equity Partners along with participation from existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Jim Clark. Besides, Expanding Capital and HBAM joined the round.
Beyond Identity will use the funds to further expand research and development and extend its footprint and resources into Asia Pacific and Latin America. Also, Taher Elgamal, “Father of SSL” and 2019 Marconi Award winner of Evolution Equity Partners, will be joining the Beyond Identity Board of Directors.
The funding comes at a time when Beyond Identity has witnessed record growth and momentum. Notably, its annual recurring revenue (ARR) increased by 330% from 2020 to 2021 and customers grew by 640%. Currently, the company has over 180 employees across North America and Europe.
“As an industry, we are coming dangerously close to being complicit in cybercrime,” said TJ Jermoluk, co-founder and CEO of Beyond Identity. “Truckloads of VC and PE money for legacy authentication technology will not protect companies. By throwing money at security controls that criminals consistently evade, in an attempt to inexplicably protect and preserve the gaping hole that is passwords, is not only funding failure, it’s knowingly failing companies and customers. Password managers, phishable MFA, and outdated VPN technologies are not the answer, and will not close the wide-open door that criminals waltz through every day. Today’s announcement sends a loud message that failure is no longer an option.”
Invisible MFA platform
The Beyond Identity team includes cybersecurity and identity management professionals passionate about restoring digital trust and building a secure way to authenticate and authorise users while protecting privacy. Its founders – Jim Clark and Tom Jermoluk, made the World Wide Web accessible to all and ready for business. While Jim worked with the launch of Netscape browser and SSL while Tom worked with large-scale home broadband access with @Home Network.
Beyond Identity changes the way the world logs in with its groundbreaking invisible MFA platform. It provides the most secure and frictionless authentication on the planet. The startup prevents ransomware and account takeover attacks and improves the user experience.
State-of-the-art MFA solution
Beyond Identity’s platform eliminates passwords and other phishable factors, thereby enabling organisations to confidently validate users’ identities. The solution ensures users log in from authorised devices and ensures that the device meets the security policy requirements during login and continuously after that.
Its revolutionary approach empowers zero trust by cryptographically binding the users’ identity to their devices and analysing hundreds of risk signals on an ongoing basis. Intuit, Snowflake, and Roblox use Beyond Identity’s multi-factor authentication solution.
Last year, the company launched two new products – Secure Customers and Secure DevOps. These solutions complement its existing Secure Work product and added dozens of integrations with Identity and Cybersecurity products across MDM, EDR, SIEM, Code Repositories, and more.
How does it work?
The only way to stop password-based attacks is to remove passwords entirely from being used as an authentication method. If passwords are hidden from the user, or are available as a backup authentication method, or stored in a database then organisations are still vulnerable to credentials stuffing, social engineering, phishing attacks, and ransomware via a remote desktop protocol.
Touted to be the leading passwordless MFA in the world, Beyond Identity combines user and device authentication, verifies users and devices meet security policies during every login, eliminates passwords from the authentication and recovery processes, and gets into action.
