New capital will support ongoing product innovation for the authentication and verification of digital content as the market continues to expand
GetReal Security, a cybersecurity leader specializing in the detection and mitigation of malicious generative AI threats including deepfakes and impersonation attacks, announced it has closed $17.5M in Series A funding led by global early-stage cybersecurity and AI investment firm Forgepoint Capital with participation from Ballistic Ventures, Evolution Equity, and K2 Access Fund as well as strategic investors In-Q-Tel (IQT), Cisco Investments and Capital One Ventures.
Joining the company’s board of directors are Forgepoint Capital Co-Founder and Managing Director Alberto Yépez and GetReal Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer Dr. Hany Farid, the preeminent digital forensics expert in the field. This new capital will fuel GetReal’s R&D, product development, and go-to-market operations as the company addresses the rapidly evolving threat environment associated with generative AI and digital content.
“Developments in foundation models and generative AI have evolved the attack surface well beyond traditional networks and infrastructures, opening up new vulnerabilities in protecting the modern digital enterprise. This means that the verification and authentication of digital content – whether text, images, audio, or video – is a critical new frontier of enterprise risk management as organizations have become prime targets for manipulation and exploitation,” said Yépez. “What sets the GetReal team apart is their combination of world-class digital forensics and deep cyber domain expertise. The team is uniquely positioned to address this challenge and equip enterprises to defend against this new attack vector.”
The proliferation and general adoption of AI have introduced both opportunities and challenges for enterprises, including the ease with which AI-generated content can be used for both legitimate and illegitimate purposes. The result is a new attack technique that targets any organization relying on digital communications to run their business – virtually every business today – undermining trust in critical information and challenging their ability to make effective business decisions. Attackers are already successfully deploying manipulated digital content to deceive employees into sharing sensitive data, executives into authorizing fraudulent transactions, and customers into trusting falsified communication.
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“We’ve reached a pivotal moment. AI-generated content is on the verge of dominating the digital landscape and bad actors are already exploiting these advancements,” said Ted Schlein, Chairman and Co-Founder of GetReal and Co-Founder and General Partner of Ballistic Ventures. “The need for solutions that can quickly and accurately verify and authenticate digital media has never been more critical. We’re happy to welcome these new investors to our syndicate, and we look forward to working together to protect enterprises and governments from the growing threats posed by AI-driven deception.”
GetReal offers a complete set of solutions designed to help organizations effectively manage risk and mitigate threats from these new types of AI-fueled attacks. All products and services are offered through GetReal’s unified platform which provides the infrastructure to accommodate all modalities (image, audio and video) for both files and real-time digital communication streams.
The company also offers enterprise-class services to help organizations train security teams, develop policy, and deploy solutions. Its newly launched incident response service, GetReal Respond, was designed to help organizations deal with complex incidents requiring the highest level of forensic analysis, and leverages GetReal’s team of digital forensics experts and investigators for advanced analysis.
“As we’ve seen so many times before in the cybersecurity industry, when sophisticated tools become easily accessible, adversaries will strike. This time will be no different,” said Matt Moynahan, CEO of GetReal. “When people can’t trust what they see, hear, or read, it will challenge every organization’s ability to execute. GetReal’s mission is to tackle this challenge head-on, and I’m proud to be working alongside this talented team to combat it.”
“I’m heartened that these quality investors understand the profound implications that unchecked malicious generative AI can have on the greater good and are joining our cause to build GetReal into a transformative cybersecurity company,” said Farid. “I’ve dedicated my career to advancing digital forensics techniques and advising on cases where manipulated content has dire real-world consequences. Our solution set is a significant step forward in our mission to create best-in-class content verification and authentication capabilities to navigate an era where synthetic content is increasingly indistinguishable from reality.”
Source: PRNewswire
