Cyber-security Startup Kapalya Announces Its Foray into India
Kolkata: Cyber-security startup Kapalya Inc. is pleased to announce its formal entry into the Indian market aftersuccessfully launching its crowd funding investment campaign in the United States through the Start Engine platform on February 7, 2022.
Founded in 2015, Kapalya’s has offices in Berkeley, California and Honolulu, Hawaii in the USA and Bengaluru in India.
Threat to India
The U.S. has experienced thefts ranging from personnel records to military secrets,often traced to hackers from Russia and China.India is all the more vulnerable, given its frosty geopolitical ties with some of its neighbors. Cyber security breaches have increased at an alarming pace in recent years. The Week reported that about 11.5 lakh incidents of cyber-attacks were brought to the notice of India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in 2021. Computer systems of AirIndia were hacked into, compromising the personal and financial information of 4.5 million customers worldwide, while telecom services provider Airtel Ltd and online grocery store Big Basket too were targets, according to a report published in Money Controlwebsite.ACNBC-TV18.com report said about 27% of Indian firms paid an average $5,00,000 to cyber-criminals as ransom during 2021.
Partnership with NSA
Kapalya’s mission is to secure data and protect governments and enterprises worldwide against ransomware attacks. Itsgame-changer Advanced Ransomware Countermeasures (ARC) solution is being developed in collaboration with the National Security Agency (NSA) of the U.S., based on patented technology. Kapalya is the only company that has partnered with the U.S. government’s leading digital surveillance organisation for this counter ransomware solution.
NSF grant
The company has been awarded grantsby the National Science Foundation (NSF)and the State of Hawaii to develop the solution. The NSF grant gives Kapalya the unique advantage of selling its product directly to federal, state and local governments,bypassing the bidding process, while the grant from the State of Hawaii makesit the preferred vendor for state government departments and agencies.
The new battlefield
Ransomware attacks have increased 148% in 2021*, with hackers, many of them state-sponsored,targeting crucial sectors. These include organisations that supply water and energy, provide access to daily necessities such as food, financial services, and healthcare. The bigger the target, the more the victim is likely to pay. Infiltration also happens by bribing insiders such as users, contractors, vendors, or partners of an organization who install ransom ware on its systems.
Says Kapalya Founder/CEO Sudesh Kumar: “Every organization is concerned about ransomware. In one incident in the U.S., patients died when the hospital’s systems were breached with ransomware and doctors could not promptly administer medication. This is not just about money, but also about saving innocent lives. Indian enterprises and governments too are under constant cyberattack. Our objective is to help Indian enterprises and governments inoculate against these attacks.”
A complete solution
Kapalya’s comprehensive enterprise-wide Encryption Management Platform (EMP), unlike those of its competitors, offers the most secure end-to-end encrypted file sharing.In the event of a ransomware attack, all data can be recovered with zero percent data leakage.
Kapalya’s AI/ML-based counter ransomware solution, which is being developedin cooperation with the U.S. government,will inoculate and remediate ransomware in real-time across a wide range of platforms such as endpoints, mobile, cloud, servers, databases and networks.