Robinhood (HOOD.NASDAQ) is a $29 billion free stock-trading platform, popular with young inexperienced investors.
To sign up for a Robinhood trading account, you need to cough up your D.O.B, e-mail address, cellphone number, bank account info and Social Security Number.
On November 3, 2021 Robinhood admitted that “we experienced a data security incident” involving “a list of email addresses for approximately five million people.”
“Whether your personal data was involved in the Robinhood data breach or not, the incident is a good reminder that it’s worth protecting your credit from criminals,” CNBC pointed out helpfully.
As commerce and communications move on-line, cyber-security has become a big concern for companies with a digital profile.
According to Global Workplace Analytics, just 3.6% of the US workforce worked from home in 2018. Now, “Our best estimate is that 25-30% of the workforce will be working-from-home multiple days a week by the end of 2021.”
This massive army of remote workers creates a newer layer of vulnerability. How can a corporation or government department ensure the computer security of a remote worker?
Plurilock Security (PLUR.V) is a $34 million cybersecurity company that “reduces or eliminates the need for passwords by measuring the pace, rhythm and cadence of a user’s keystrokes to confirm their identity.”
On November 9, 2021 PLUR announced a strategic partnership with Absolute Software (ABST.NASDAQ) (ABST.T), pairing their Application Persistence™ capabilities with the Company’s DEFEND continuous authentication solution.
The partnership allows Plurilock to embed the power of self-healing in its DEFEND continuous authentication product. As a result of the partnership, Plurilock will offer a new comprehensive offering called DEFEND Persisted.
With the DEFEND Persisted offering, users will benefit from the existing continuous authentication technology, now with self-healing capabilities built in.
“In a time where more workforces are shifting to remote environments, continuous authentication is critical to ensure the security of devices,” stated Ian L. Paterson, “Absolute’s cutting-edge Persistence® technology will help provide assurance to our customers that their devices will remain protected, and that DEFEND will continue to invisibly authenticate users, even if cyber attackers attempt to uninstall or remove it from a device.”
“In today’s work-from-anywhere environments, organizations are more reliant than ever on software providers to keep their critical assets protected from an onslaught of security threats,” said Edward Choi, SVP of Global Alliances at Absolute Software. “As an APaaS partner, Plurilock is taking the steps needed to harden and self-heal their mission-critical application to help ensure it remains healthy and working effectively for their customers.”
“Logins and passwords are notoriously insecure, so the Plurilock product watches from the wings, looking for variations in behaviour that might show Bob from the Agricultural Research Department is not in actuality Phyllis from Accounting jumping on his machine while he grabs a mocha,” wrote Equity Guru’s Chris Parry on November 9, 2021.
“This product works and is rapidly picking up business for Plurilock in the areas of government, military, and Fortune 500 companies,” added Parry.
“But every secured system has potential flaws if you work hard enough to get around them, and one such issue for Plurilock has been that its product needs to remain in contact with its servers while its security check is doing its thing. A sustained threat to connectivity, like a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, might take Plurilock out for just long enough for it to be breached.
No more.
With the new deal announced yesterday, Plurilock adds the persistence technology of Absolute Software to its mix, which will mean even if Plurilock’s connectivity is attacked, it can ‘self heal’ using the Absolute tool.” – End of Parry.
August 27, 2021, PLUR released Q2, 2021 Financial Highlights
- Total revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, was $8,604,310 and $8,680,071 respectively ($79,512 and $182,851 over the same periods in the prior fiscal year). The increase in revenue is due to the acquisition of Aurora Systems Consulting Inc. (“Aurora”) in the Solutions Division.
- Hardware sales revenues accounted for 88.1% and 87.3% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively (0% for both the periods in 2020) of total revenues. Hardware sales revenue was the new revenue stream added to the Company after the acquisition of Aurora.
- Hardware sales revenue was $7,581,208 for both the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively. No revenue was recorded under this category in prior year.
- Electronic software license and maintenance sales revenue was $738,054 and $805,810 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively, compared to $79,512 and $163,480 over the same periods in the prior year.
- Professional services sales revenue was $285,048 and $293,053 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively, compared to nil and $19,371 over the same periods in the prior year.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $(985,142) and $(2,041,539) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively, compared to $(482,375) and $(1,037,749) over the same periods in the prior year.
- Cash & cash equivalents on June 30, 2021, was $4,977,387 compared to $1,721,179 on December 31, 2020.
- Cash used in operating activities for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 was $418,094 and $1,576,549, compared to $321,435 and $518,543 during the same periods in the prior fiscal year.
On November 9, 2021, Steve Darling from Proactive Investors interviewed Plurilock CEO Ian L. Paterson about the strategic partnership with Absolute Software.
“Most workforces are remote today with COVID,” stated Paterson, “And it required us to have a capability around ensuring that our software, our defense software, was always going to run on a device.”
“This is difficult if you’re dealing with employee-owned equipment – what we in the industry called BYOD (Bring your own device),” continued Paterson, “Absolute provides a persistence capability, which means that they can persist or make sure that software is running on that device.”
“Regardless of what happens to that device, whether that device gets restarted, whether that device even has their hard drive wiped, Absolute has capability around being able to ensure that the Plurilock software is running, it’s healthy, it’s providing the identity assurance – which is our core differentiator on that device itself.”
“For our customers, it’s an added feature to provide protection for remote use, or remote work situations.” – End of Paterson.
Ironically, Robinhood is already in the business of selling its customer data to 3rd parties, leaking retail order flow to high-frequency traders [HFTs] and hedge funds.
“These traders could then use HFT algorithms to front run the trades, which would massively accentuate the retail momentum,” confirms Blockworks. It also makes the stocks more expensive for Robinhood’s users.
In 2019, Robinhood did settle claims from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that it wasn’t receiving the best prices for orders.
Plurilock can’t protect newbie investors against sneaky trading platforms, but it can protect a remote workforce against hackers and other cybercriminals.
Full Disclosure: Plurilock is an Equity Guru marketing client.