The pioneer programme will commence with the support from Singapore’s very own Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) with aims to accelerate start-ups in cybersecurity sectors.

Under the programme, the cybersecurity entrepreneurs have access to a three month stint at a start-up hub, named Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at Block 71 (ICE71). In that hub, the hopefuls will learn pre-accelerator boot camp, accelerator training programme and landing pad for start-ups with Europe-based cybersecurity accelerator Cylon.

“Government support for cyber security is critical to grow Singapore’s regional expertise and cyber security startups like Horangi will benefit from these programs,” said Paul Hadjy, CEO at Horangi Cyber Security (Horangi).

Hadjy told Hackwarenews team that the state top-down approach is essential in supporting the embryonic state of cybersecurity development in Singapore.

In his opinion, the barrier for growth in the cybersecurity security often pointed down to the shortage of talents in the field. Thus, the accelerator programme will allow the startups to gain access to funding as well as the right mentorship to groom talents and expertise.

Besides the lack of talents, Hadjy highlighted that many Southeast-Asia based firms have downplayed the values of cyber security in their overall corporate strategy.

“Many ASEAN companies view cyber security as an IT task and not an overarching business risk,” opined Hadjy.

This oversight causes many decision-makers to set ineffective budget targets for cyber security spending, which in turn leads to myopic, ineffective spending. However, he noted that corporate companies are gradually changing their mindset on the importance of cyber-security.

“Today, organizations in Singapore and other regions are shifting towards a more holistic view of cyber security; where it has become a pressing concern that affects business processes across all enterprises.” concluded Hadjy.

Going forward, he believed that enterprises should engage a third party cyber security company in helping them to analyse their profile and identify system vulnerabilities. Then, the outcome of the analysis can be used to formulate plan to protect key data and assets from breaches.

The post Horangi praises Singapore’s initiative on new cybersecurity accelerator programme appeared first on Hack Ware News.

Before the end of 2017, Horangi has proven its worth and closed a USD3.1 million Series A Round, headed by Monk’s Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm known for investing into high growth early stage tech startups in Southeast Asia.

Besides Monk’s Hill Ventures, Horangi has gotten the backing of another four venture firms namely, Right Click Capital, 500 Startups, Hub Ventures Fund and 6Degrees Ventures. These angel investors are no means funding out of philanthropy but rather on the competitiveness posed by Horangi’s presence in the cyber security sector.

“Horangi brings a level of expertise and much needed capability in its products to the market, particularly in Asia where this is lacking,” said Lim Kuo-Yi, managing partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Lim’s judgment was well-founded as since its inception in early 2016, the fledgling cybersecurity company had built up a beefy portfolio of 50 clients across various sectors.  Horangi even attracted interests of U.S. based multi-national corporation (MNCs) which prefer the Singapore-based cybersecurity firm as their security providers over others.

Despite fielding a small team, Horangi packed a punch with over 25 years of expertise in cybersecurity through its team members, which detected over 100,000 system vulnerability issues and spanned over 6 global offices across North America and Asia-Pacific.

Apparently, Horangi’s company vision has also struck a chord among the investors, seeking to provide a safer cyberspace for all.

“Our vision is to provide an affordable full-stack cybersecurity solution for our users globally, allowing them to quickly understand and deploy the right course of action.” stated Hadj.

So far, the company offers three core products namely, Scanner, Hunter, and Storyfier, which integrate seamlessly to provide customers with a full-stack cybersecurity solution previously available only to Fortune 500 companies.

In addition, Horangi provides in-house cyber security consulting to clients to identify system vulnerabilities.

Hackwarenews team sent its congratulation note to Horangi on its latest investment funding. Going forward, the team expects more cyber-security in the Asia Pacific region to receive windfall investments, following the trend seen in start-up nation, Israel where cyber-security firms became the top recipient of funding in 2017.

The post Horangi ends 2017 with a huge War Chest appeared first on Hack Ware News.

“It was cool to see some of the other companies doing cyber-security in the region as there are not that many.” said Hadjy, referring to the recent turnout for the CyberConnect 360 event held in Singapore.

To Hadjy, he believed that more can be done to chase the success from the event and address the very real cyber threats posted to the corporate world. For instances, financial firms have increasingly became the top target for hacking as they control large amount of money and credit information of clients.

Despite the risks, not many financial related institutions were able to ward off hostile cyber-attack from outside the company. As such, a number of high profile data breaches have surfaced out in the news lately.

Horangi: The Tiger that does not sleep

The aftermath of such breaches then often opened up the victim, in most of the cases, a company to the possibility of very expensive litigation which in the first place can be prevented.

“It is extremely important that a company be able to identify any possible holes within their enterprise network and to be able to fix them before they would be the target of a coordinated attack.” opined Hadjy.

It was often said that human remained the weakest link in the corporate data protection, however proper training can be used to enhance their mindsets and raises their cyber-security awareness.

The next weakest link in line then lies in the email systems which are vulnerable to phishing, ransomware and malware. And most often a weak password is all it needed for hackers to find a breakthrough to a highly secured system.

Reflecting this sentiment, Hadjy told Hackwarenews that every company should know whether or not its computer network that are connected to the Internet are as secured as possible.

Then, this big picture will list the various weak spots in the system which might be vulnerable to cyber attacker for exploitation to gain greater access to company data.

In filling this gap, Horangi has offered a three-part system that scans, detects security issues and prepares reports based on the data collected. Moreover, the three-part system is capable of doing a complete and thorough analysis of a client’s computer network and all of its workstations looking for possible security risks.

“With Horangi, they (the clients) would be able to know whether or not they would be ready and help them identify any deficiencies before they become a problem.” commented Hadjy.

After the review, the client will be able to come up with a plan to mitigate the risks and to hopefully prevent any type of security breach from occurring in the future.

As Horangi’s motto goes, “there is no off switch on a tiger”, and the word “Horangi” is actually derived from Korean language meaning, tiger. Similarly in the cyber world, there is no off day as well, as threats are constantly round the clock. So probably, we do need a sleepless tiger to ward off endless cyber-attacks for data integrity.

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