Upstream Security: Funding Raised From Cisco Investments

By Amit Chowdhry • Apr 16, 2024

Upstream Security, a leading provider of cybersecurity extended detection and response (XDR) for connected vehicles and IoT announced it received an investment from Cisco Investments.

The spreading of complex IoT devices in the mobility, automotive, and transportation sectors introduces unprecedented operational efficiencies, and data-driven services and solutions, and exceptional customer experience. But advanced connectivity and software-defined components also open the door to large-scale cyber risks, threatening business availability and data integrity. Upstream protects millions of mobility-connected vehicles and IoT devices worldwide, providing a cloud-based and multi-layered approach to extended detection and response.

This funding by Cisco Investments highlights the need for purpose-built IoT cybersecurity solutions to safeguard the mobility and IoT ecosystem across the entire development and production lifecycle.

Upstream’s cloud-based IoT XDR platform analyzes the contextual state of physical IoT assets and their connected ecosystem in real time to holistically identify and mitigate cyber risks. This agentless platform requires no software or hardware installation, enabling rapid deployment and comprehensive coverage of devices already in production. This platform ingests, parses, and normalizes vast amounts of connected vehicle data, IoT protocols, telematics, API transactions, and other data streams from millions of devices, endpoints, and application consumers. This data enables the creation of unique digital twins—near real-time representations of devices and endpoints, facilitating holistic and effective detection. By monitoring devices, services, and overall asset behavior, the Platform detects known and unknown anomalies based on proprietary ML-powered models.

With a purpose-built vehicle security operation center (vSOC) dedicated to monitoring and investigating connected vehicles and IoT cyber threats, Upstream provides a holistic suite of cybersecurity solutions and services enabling customers to proactively identify and remediate cyber threats. Utilizing Upstream’s Ocean AI, Generative AI-powered capabilities accelerates investigation remediation processes.

KEY QUOTES:

“We are thrilled to welcome Cisco Investments to our group of investors. This investment provides a unique opportunity to deepen our impact on the IoT sector, and more specifically Mobility, Automotive, and Transportation.”

– Yoav Levy, Upstream Security Co-founder and CEO

“Together with our partners, Cisco is enabling automobile manufacturers across the globe to provide mission-critical, secure connectivity as cars transform into data centers on wheels. With an expected 95% of new vehicles having embedded connectivity by the year 2030, we can also expect a rise in automotive cybersecurity threats. Investing in solutions to ensure the right safeguards for secure connectivity and operation are in place is critical to instill the trust needed for wide adoption of the technology, not just in the automotive segment but more broadly for other IoT applications, as well.

– Cisco Investments vice president Aleem Rizvon