Most science fiction writers looking ahead to the 21st century didn’t envision a world where a lot of our daily lives feels like suffering the tedious death of a thousand papercuts.
Let’s explain that reference:
How many passwords do you have? I can’t even count mine.
Just out of sheer morbid curiosity, I looked up how many passwords the average person has. The number is a staggering 100. According to another study, the average American internet user has 150 online accounts that require a password. In theory, that means you need to memorize 150 unique, complex passwords to maximize your account security.
And it’s only going to get worse. By this year (because the study was done in 2017), the number will be upwards to 300 accounts. And we wonder why our lives are so complicated. It’s the little things.
Most people give up their passwords to the authenticator or database on their computer for convenience over security, and that’s probably by design, given how easy it is to send all of that information back to the manufacturer for “custom design upgrades” or however else they’re justifying abrogating our privacy nowadays.
If you’re into crypto or its many variants, you understand the value of your privacy. If you’re smart, you’re not leaving the password to your exchange dashboard in the passwords folder. That goes double for your private key. But new people may lack perspective, and when you consider the sheer amount of people who blab away their personal and private lives and information on social media, we could probably extend that simple statement considerably.
But what if I told you there was a non-invasive technology that could eliminate the need for thumb-print identification, or the secondary 2FA app on your phone, and naturally, do away with the need to memorize 300 distinct passwords? What if there was a way we could simplify this tedious aspect of our lives while protecting ourselves and our businesses? Because there is, and the company behind it is called Plurilock Securities (PLUR.V)
The next stage of biometrics
The deal with Plurilock is identity-centric cybersecurity using biometrics for today’s work forces. The days of sitting at your computer in the morning and trying to remember which iteration of your various passwords you’ve used for this machine are over.
Now companies like Plurilock enable organizations to operate safely and securely while reducing tensions caused by cybersecurity. They offer world class IT and cybersecurity solutions through its solutions division, which comes part and parcel with their artificial intelligence driven and cloud friendly security through its tech division.
Plurilock has been around since 2016, and came about as a result of academic research that culminated in a novel technique for authenticating a person’s identity using behavioural biometrics.
It’s called Plurilock ADAPT. It spots and stops invalid and illicit credential use by analyzing the mouse and keyboard biometrics as well as other identifying signals, such as:
- Typing biometrics
- Geolocation and travel
- Time of day
- Network and environment context
- Device ID and fingerprinting
The new method provided a distinct advantage over standard traditional biometric technologies presently on the market.
The researchers applied the new science to the movements involved in mouse and keyboard activity, and by observing action and activity over time, the technology could continually confirm the identity of the user. All because of the way you type or use your mouse. Next came years of strategy and product development. Plurilock pulled in the first contracts with customers in the worlds of finance and defense, and in 2020, decided they had had enough of being a private company and listed themselves on the venture exchange to facilitate their growth.
Today, their team includes decades of business to business, cybersecurity and technology experience.
The second product consists of something I’ve never had to face and honestly wouldn’t even have thought about if I hadn’t seen it on their site as a problem. That’s an issue with compromised sessions.
Here’s a scenario:
You’ve logged in and left your keyboard without locking it again. Your information is vulnerable. This doesn’t much matter if you’re at home, but if you’re in a public arena or a workplace where you’re dealing with vulnerable information—yeah, it’s a problem. There’s no resources out there presently to determine if the person using the computer is the person who should be using it.
The best case scenario here is someone plays a prank. They screenshot your screen—import into paint—save and then make it your wallpaper. You think your screen’s frozen and you restart. It’s an annoying juvenile trick, but it’s good for a laugh. The worst case scenario? Someone’s logged into your computer, jacked into your passwords and data, hopped over to your exchange and stolen all your crypto. If you’re not into crypto, then they’ve invaded your privacy in some other way. Maybe downloading angry ferret dancing videos or what have you.
Plurilock DEFEND protects against that. Because nobody should exploit defenseless ferrets.
Yesterday, beyond saving the ferrets from a horrifying Samba accident, Plurilock dropped another solid reason why their DEFEND system is worth looking into. This one involves a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a forensic attribution technology enhancement. The application is called “Forensic Analysis for Malicious Inside Attack Attribution based on Activity Monitoring and Behavioral Biometrics Profiling” and yes, it’s kind of a mouthful, but it’s sufficiently necessary.
It documents the company’s forensic attribution technology, which when it’s paired with Plurilock DEFEND, helps organizations in determine user data and narrowing individuals that could have been involved in an insider attack based on their behavioural biometrics profile.
So if your company has a security breach from within—namely someone rips you off using one of your terminals—then the biometrics scanners offered in the DEFEND program will be able to tell who they are based on how they type and how they hold their mouse. Or other aspects of their biometric profile. There’s also a need for this tech: according to Bitglass, 61% of companies experienced an insider attack in 2020.
“Insider threat is becoming a growing concern for enterprises and existing software and tools often provide little to no information on the execution mode of the attack or the attackers’ identity. This patent is intended to be part of Plurilock’s ongoing strategy to strengthen its competitive moat and pairs this new technology with our existing cutting-edge continuous authentication solutions to provide insider threat insights in a way no other product in the market can,” said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock.
Note the word moat in the quote. If you’re unfamiliar, moat in this context means that nobody else is doing this and nobody else can do this (without consequences) because they’ve got the patent locked up. Plurilock is the only game in town for this kind of biometric defense.
The People
The company is spearheaded by Ian Paterson, a ten year data analytics and tech entrepreneur. Instead of wasting my time and yours giving you a rough explanation of who Paterson is and what he’s done in the past, here’s Maddy asking him five questions you may have thought of yourself. Decide for yourself.
The Numbers:
Most of Plurilock and its subsidiaries revenue streams come from United States government contracts from such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), each of which were interested in beefing up their cybersecurity.
Third quarter fiscal 2021 financial highlights:
- For the three months ended Sept. 30, 2021, revenue increased by $6.6-million as compared with revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2021.
- Total revenue for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021, was $15,245,948 and $23,926,019, respectively, compared with $168,854 and $351,705 over the same periods in the prior fiscal year. The increase in revenue is primarily due to revenue generated from the new solutions division post-Aurora Systems Consulting Inc. (ASC) acquisition.
- Hardware sales revenue for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021, totalled $13,866,649 and $21,447,857, respectively. No hardware revenue was recorded in the prior year. Electronic software licence and maintenance sales revenue for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021, was $1,294,124 and $2,099,934, respectively, compared with $84,915 and $248,395 over the same periods in the prior year. Professional service revenue was $85,175 and $378,228 for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021, respectively, compared with $83,939 and $103,310 over the same periods in the prior year.
- Cash and cash equivalents on Sept. 30, 2021, were $7,050,291 compared with $1,721,179 on Dec. 31, 2020.
- During the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021, the company generated $1,904,265 and $327,717 of cash from operating activities, respectively, compared with using $346,795 and $865,338 during the same periods in 2020.
Their last batch of financials came out in November, and displayed their fiscal 2021 Q3, showing $23.9 million in total revenue for the nine month period. This included an overseas financial institution for Defend, which paid $672,000, as well as lucrative deals with the above-named organizations.
But while I have you here, don’t forget to check out what else is going on with this company. We have a new First Glance with Jodie Vance. You can see our chart wizard twice this week: once with his technical analysis, and another with digital charts in video form, and finally our investor roundtable where Equity Guru’s assortment of wise old mandarins (no, I’m not in on this one) tell you what they like and don’t like about the company.
—Joseph Morton
Full disclosure: Plurilock Security is an equity guru marketing client.
