Rilevera Inc., a startup dedicated to enhancing cyberthreat detection, has successfully raised $3 million in seed funding. This investment aims to revolutionize detection engineering, a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of cybersecurity. The company has developed a centralized platform that empowers security teams to create, test, deploy, and monitor detection rules more efficiently across various environments.
The challenge of managing detection rules is significant in cybersecurity, particularly as data and log formats continually evolve. “The problem we solve is kind of the foundational problem of cybersecurity,” explained co-founder and Chief Executive Ethan Smart. He emphasized that detection engineers play a vital role in identifying both emerging threats and longstanding vulnerabilities, yet they often lack adequate tools to perform their tasks effectively.
The discipline of detection engineering involves creating and maintaining rules that recognize cyberthreats based on signals from system logs, network activity, and user behavior. As environments change and threat tactics evolve, maintaining the accuracy and effectiveness of these rules becomes increasingly complex. Smart noted that frequent changes to the underlying data can lead to rules breaking or producing inaccurate results, thereby increasing operational risk and additional workload for security teams.
Rilevera’s platform leverages artificial intelligence to enhance rule performance. It can validate rules, flag issues, and recommend necessary adjustments. Features such as version control, health monitoring, and AI-assisted tuning are integral to the platform. Additionally, it integrates with major security information and event management systems, including those from Datadog Inc. and Sumo Logic Inc., facilitating centralized management of detection rules across disparate systems.
Andy Hunn, partner at lead investor DataTribe Foundry LLC, highlighted the pressing need for Rilevera’s solution. He stated that detection engineers face a formidable task in managing hundreds or thousands of existing rules while new ones are continually created. The input from over 30 organizations across sectors like financial services, technology, and insurance has shaped Rilevera’s offerings. Early adopters include a prominent U.S. cryptocurrency firm and one of the nation’s top five insurers.
In one notable deployment, Rilevera discovered that only 5% of a customer’s 1,000 detection rules were functioning as intended. “Each organization is its own unicorn because they have different types of data and logs,” Smart remarked, pointing out that standard out-of-the-box rules often prove to be inefficient or broken.
The recent funding will enable Rilevera to expand its product development team, enhance its integration ecosystem, and bolster sales and marketing efforts. DataTribe, known for exclusively investing in cybersecurity companies, recently closed a $41 million fund earlier this year, underscoring the growing importance of robust cybersecurity solutions.
With its innovative approach, Rilevera aims to become a comprehensive system of record for detection engineering workflows, addressing a critical and widely recognized security challenge within the industry.