Keystrike secures pre-seed funding from Philippe Langlois, cybersecurity entrepreneur

The Icelandic cybersecurity startup Keystrike has secured funding from Philippe Langlois, founder of cybersecurity company Qualys (QLYS) which is currently valued at over $4 billion. Keystrike’s technology was invented by Ymir Vigfusson, Associate Professor at Emory University, to rethink multi-factor authentication.

“Keystrike seals off the path that is commonly used for cyber attacks today, which is simply to hack the computers of regular employees to access company data, while leaving the user undisturbed,” explains Prof. Vigfusson.

Keystrike’s technology, which is in product development, consists of authenticating that keyboard commands are physically made by an employee and not by a hacker with access to the employee’s computer.  The authentication is done automatically for every command and is a more secure approach than current solutions on the market. The technology is meant to combat spearfishing attacks— malicious emails sent to steal information — so that if an employee clicks a bad link it won’t spread past the infected computer.

“What sparked my interest in Keystrike is that the technology is truly unique and I believe it will revolutionize cybersecurity for businesses around the world. Moreover, the executive team is strong and has extensive experience,” says Philippe.

Keystrike was founded by Árni S. Pétursson, Valdimar Óskarsson, Ýmir Vigfússon, Steindór Guðmundsson and Árni Þór Árnason. They have received the Technology Development Fund grant from Rannís which will go towards product development. Additionally, the company was invited to participate in UC Berkeley’s startup accelerator program, SkyDeck.