AttackIQ, a San Diego-based cybersecurity startup, raised $17.6 million in funding on May 29, bringing the total amount raised to date to $35 million. The funding round was led by Silicon Valley firm Khosla Ventures, with participation from past investors Salesforce Ventures, Telstra Ventures and Index Ventures.
Former VMware executive Brian Byun, a partner with Khosla Ventures, will join AttackIQ’s board of directors as part of the deal.
“AttackIQ’s unique approach fits our view that effective enterprise security programs require an objective, continuous, and machine-driven approach to pressure test and validate the sprawl of security products and controls,” Byun said in a news release. “We believe this market opportunity is huge and that AttackIQ is well positioned to lead the market.”
AttackIQ plans to use the additional funding to continue to develop its platform, which runs scenarios to detect any gaps in a company’s security.
For most enterprises, CEO Brett Galloway said the “missing ingredient” is feedback on the effectiveness of their security systems.
“The best way to deliver this feedback is to emulate attacker behavior and see what the security controls do – or, all too frequently, what they don’t do,” Galloway said in a news release. “AttackIQ provides enterprises the information necessary to move from security guesswork to successfully managing the cybersecurity risks that they face, both today and into the future.”
The company also plans to hire more staff and expand its field operations. Earlier this year, AttackIQ built out its team by adding two new executives. Christopher Kennedy was named chief information security officer, and Vinod Peris was named vice president of engineering.
