Hushmesh – a cyber security start-up aimed at securing the world’s digital infrastructure – recently announced a $5.2 million early-stage financing round led by cyber and advanced technologies investor Paladin Capital Group, with participation from Akamai Technologies. And Hushmesh will use the funding round to develop the Mesh, a global information space with automated security built in, allowing people and organizations to operate online without fear of malicious attacks or data breaches.
The Mesh automates encryption key management for every person and non-person entity, giving them an unlimited number of keys to secure an unlimited amount of personal or entity data. And the Mesh encrypts all data at the source, eliminates all human insiders, and cryptographically unites identifiers, aliases, keys, and encrypted data.
In removing the inherent vulnerability of knowledge-based credentials like passwords and with no database to attack, the Mesh makes it possible to end identity theft, prevent data breaches, and eliminate fakes and fraud. And in sharp contrast to Web3 and blockchain, individuals who lose access to their keys do not automatically lose all their data.
The Mesh is built on a fully automated, globally attested, physically decentralized network of Confidential Computing machines. Rather than relying on the Domain Name System (DNS), the Mesh is underpinned by the “Universal Name System” (UNS), which automates end-to-end cryptography – a method of protecting information and communications using codes and math – between any two individual persons or non-person entities. This ground-breaking approach enables universal trust and authenticity while providing confidentiality and privacy by default to all participants.
Hushmesh is working with AMI, a leader in dynamic firmware for worldwide computing, and other early design partners to utilize the Mesh for authentic data transfer. And AMI integrated its firmware management and orchestration service with the Mesh to secure critical updates across the global firmware supply chain.
KEY QUOTES:
“The architecture of the world wide web reflects its original use case: an open, global library where any resource owner can publish and share information with anybody else in any way they want.”
“This design introduced two foundational security flaws – or ‘world-wide weaknesses’ – that haunt us to this day. The first is that it must be administered by domain insiders, meaning that malicious insiders or attackers who gain privileged access can tamper with everything. Second, there is no global security mechanism, nor global identity or integrity verification built in. In contrast, the Mesh is secured by design with automated cryptography.”
— Hushmesh founder and CEO Manu Fontaine
“Firmware security is of the utmost importance, as the security of everything else depends on it. The built-in cryptographic security of the Mesh has the potential to provide our customers with global assurance of authenticity and enable secure communication in the supply chain in a way that was just not possible before.”
— Stefano Righi, AMI SVP Global Security Software Group
“At Paladin, we’re in the business of innovation, but what Hushmesh has created truly has the potential to transform global security. As we put our entire lives online and connect our homes, cars, cities, and critical infrastructure, we must demand stronger security for our data and universal trust. The progress for humanity that can come from built-in, invisible, yet ubiquitous cryptographic security is why we are backing Hushmesh as it commercializes its technology.”
— Mourad Yesayan, Paladin Capital Group Managing Director
