Odds are, the only thing preventing your banking account info or your online dating DMs from being publicly accessible is a measly password. Unfortunately, millions of people use extremely easy-to-guess passwords like “123456” and “password.”
But even if your passwords are more complex than “qwerty,” the sheer number of online accounts everyone is responsible for means many people repeat passwords across multiple sites. In that case, your password is only as strong as the weakest website, and your data across all these sites gets compromised if one gets hacked.
A handful of companies and cybersecurity organizations are turning to methods like two-factor authentication or biometrics to add an extra layer of security protecting your digital data. Startup TypingDNA has its own interesting take.
TypingDNA has developed proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms that use typing as a form of authentication. These algorithms pay attention to how people type to double-check if the person entering the password is who they say they are.
This interesting form of authentication has captured the attention of investors, and on Friday the company announced its $7 million Series A. The round was led by Google’s AI-focused venture fund, Gradient Ventures, with participation from GapMinder, Techstars Ventures and previous investors (TypingDNA is a graduate of the Techstars NYC 2018 accelerator program).
A TypingDNA spokesperson confirmed to Built In that the new funding will be used to make its typing biometrics more available to developers. It’s also looking into applications for this tech in the financial market, since the technology has already been approved by the European Banking Authority to be used in the “Strong Customer Authentication” process.
TypingDNA will also be putting this money into expanding its team. The company is hiring for roles in sales, marketing and engineering in its New York headquarters. It’s also hiring across its Romania and U.K. offices.
“We’re excited about TypingDNA’s developer-first approach to enable people to authenticate securely based on how they type,” Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures, said in a statement. “With global regulation impacting face-recognition-based authentication and hackers targeting SMS-based two-factor authentication, typing biometrics is the best form of identifying people without compromising privacy or security.”
