NSA Veterans Land $1.5 Million in Funding for Startup

ReFirm Labs, a startup founded by two NSA veterans, announced today it received $1.5 million in seed money from DataTribe, an incubator that helps intelligence agency and government research lab technologists build companies.

ReFirm is launching Centrifuge Platform, which aims to automatically detect security vulnerabilities in firmware embedded in IoT, consumer electronics, and other connected devices.

Although current security tools use source-code analysis to assess the integrity of firmware, that method falls short, Terry Dunlap, ReFirm Labs' CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.

"Manufacturers often have little visibility or control over the firmware of third-party components that are integrated into their devices," says Dunlap in a statement. "ReFirm's Lab's Centrifuge Platform makes it possible to rapidly assess the security posture of a device at any point in the lifecycle chain, identifying backdoor accounts, hard-coded passwords and potential zero-day threats."

Read more about ReFirm here.

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