The FIC Start-up Award aims to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in the cybersecurity sector. The jury consists of end-users, investment funds, representatives of the ANSSI and the Ministries of Interiors and of the Armed Forces. One or more innovative companies are rewarded each year. Fourteen startups have been awarded in the 2019 edition. Let’s zoom in on DataDome (winner), Acklio and Lokly. The full list of candidates includes Citalid, Cyber-Detect, Cyberzen, Icare Technologies, Multisense, Ogo, Sesame IT, Shadline, Ugloo, Weakspot and Yogosha.
DATADOME
- Tagline: Protection from automated attacks
- Url: datadome.co
- Year founded: 2015
- Country: France
- Founder(s): Benjamin Fabre & Benjamin Grenier
- Industry: Cybersecurity & bad bot management
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Pitch: The DataDome bots management solution relies on AI and machine learning to analyze more than 50 billion hits per month and optimize the sites and APIs of major e-Commerce players (e.g. Carrefour, Leroy Merlin), secure personal data stored on marketplaces (e.g. Pages Jaunes, BlaBlaCar) and protect the content of leading media sites (e.g. Le Parisien, Ouest France).
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Product/Service: DataDome is an international cybersecurity company specializing in protecting and accelerating digital business. With its artificial intelligence-based management solution, DataDome enables organizations to (1) improve performance previously burdened by intensive scraping, (2) protect user data from hackers, and (3) obtain non-traffic-polluted analytics to improve marketing and decision-making
ACKLIO
- Tagline: The Internet of Things without compromise
- Url: ackl.io
- Year founded: 2016
- Country: France
- Founder(s): Alexander Pelov & Laurent Toutain
- Industry: Internet of Things & Securing Industrial Systems
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Pitch: A spin-off of the IMT Atlantique engineering school, Acklio crystallizes 20 years of R&D and 13 theses in its solutions. Its innovation, integration of IP protocols for LPWAN networks, is being standardized by the international committee: the IETF. Acklio has already demonstrated the quality of its innovation and received approval from the leaders of its market, who are now partners: American giant Cisco, or the French Sigfox and Objenious.
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Product/Service: Acklio provides software solutions to enable any LPWAN network with IP (Lorawan, Sigfox, NO-IoT, etc.). The solutions deliver native interoperability, universal and simple integration, and end-to-end security. Building on more than 20 years of research experience and over 13 doctoral theses on network protocols, architecture and security, Acklio software represents the first worldwide implementation of new compression-decompression technology for LPWAN.
In your opinion, what are the major cybersecurity issues?
“Delays in IoT network deployments are mainly due to a lack of visibility when it comes to the security and interoperability of solutions. The use of open standards, such as IP, allows end-to-end security and confidentiality of transmissions and data. Also, a coherent security policy should be applied regardless of the chosen technologies and architecture.”
LOKLY
- Tagline: The ultimate mobile data protection solution
- Url: lokly.com
- Year founded: 2015
- Country: France
- Founder(s): Benoit Berthe
- Industry: Security/Development of hardware and software security solutions
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Pitch: Lokly products are positioned in 3 areas of security: storage, data communication and access control. Ergonomics and ease of use are at the heart of the company’s focus, so as to offer security solutions that fit perfectly into the daily lives of professionals.
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Product/Service: Under development since 2015 and marketed since September 2018, Lokly comes in the form of an encrypted USB key connected to a smartphone that authenticates the user and controls all features.
In your opinion, what are the major issues with cybersecurity?
“Cybersecurity must be everyone’s business to ensure that protection measures are effectively deployed, in particular by integrating the human factor much more. A major challenge is also companies’ and users’ awareness of cybersecurity. In 2018, 91% of the USB keys used were not encrypted!”