Secret Double Octopus (SDO) is an Israeli software company specializing in passwordless authentication for enterprise environments.

History

The company was founded in 2015 by a team of entrepreneurs and security researchers from

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) ( he, אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has five campuses: the ...

Beersheba Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...

. The team was led by Prof.

Shlomi Dolev Shlomi Dolev ( he, שלומי דולב; born December 5, 1958) is a Rita Altura Trust Chair Professor in Computer Science at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the head of the BGU Negev Hi-Tech Faculty Startup Accelerato Biography Shlom ...

and Dr. Shimrit Tzur-David. The company's core product is based on proprietary password alternatives for password-based legacy systems and secure communications using

secret sharing Secret sharing (also called secret splitting) refers to methods for distributing a secret among a group, in such a way that no individual holds any intelligible information about the secret, but when a sufficient number of individuals combine th ...

algorithms, originally developed to protect nuclear launch codes, now used to prevent cyber attacks. Secret Double Octopus' technology is regarded as a universal replacement for

password A password, sometimes called a passcode (for example in Apple devices), is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of ...

s, OTPs, physical security keys,

smart card A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...

s and other

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicat ...

mechanisms. The company uses proprietary phone-as-a-token technology to prevent unauthorized use of systems while preventing identity theft. Secret Double Octopus has offices in Europe and the U.S. Its headquarters are in Tel-Aviv and Palo Alto, California.

Product and funding

The company offers an enterprise authentication platform that covers

on-premises On- premises software (abbreviated to on-prem, and incorrectly referred to as on-premise) is installed and runs on computers on the premises of the person or organization using the software, rather than at a remote facility such as a server farm ...

assets,

cloud applications In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may com ...

, remote tools (e.g. VPNs and RDPs),

desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...

/ laptop workstation authentication and an authenticator app for passwordless authentication or

multi-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...

. The company raised a $6 million A round from JVP,

Iris Capital Iris Capital is a venture capital firm, specialized in the digital economy, primarily active in Europe. Since its creation, the Iris Capital team has invested more than a billion Euros in over 230 innovative companies. Iris Capital is sponsored ...

, Liberty Israel and Benhamou Global Ventures. In April 2020, the company announced a $15 million Series B round to expand their passwordless authentication and remote-access security solutions for enterprises. The new round brings the company's total funding to $22.5 million.

Awards and recognition

Double Octopus was named a

Gartner Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its clients ...

'Cool Vendor' in 2016 and in 2017, ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...

'' listed it on its "50 startups that will boom according to VCs". In 2021 the company was named "Best in Class" for enterprise passwordless authentication by th
Aite Group
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References

Information technology companies Software companies of Israel Security companies of Israel Software companies established in 2015 {{ict-company-stub

History

Product and funding

Awards and recognition

See also

References