Software bugs are at the root of many vulnerabilities, but not all of them. Security startup Buguroo is emerging from stealth in the United States this week with new technologies for both static and dynamic analysis of code, as well as an online fraud prevention system to help organizations defend against multiple classes of online threats.
Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo, founder and CTO of Buguroo, explained that the company’s roots are in Deloitte Spain. Buguroo was spun out from Deloitte’s European Security Operations Center in June 2015 and has raised $3.34 million in a funding, led by Inveready Technology Investment Group.
Buguroo is now launching is a static analysis tool called bugscout. Often static analysis technologies are focused on code quality issues, while the aim with bugscout is to identify potential security risks like SQL injection and buffer overflow conditions.
SQL injection is a type of vulnerability that can lead to database information breaches. Typically, a SQL injection flaw is enabled by way of some form of input validation weakness. SQL injection vulnerabilities are often triggered with a code parameter that is not sanitized, which is something that Buguroo’s tools can now help an organization identify, Ferrezuelo explained.
The use of static analysis tools for security is not a new thing, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) having its Fortify source code analyzer technology in market for years. Ferrezuelo noted that while Fortify is a leader in the market, he added that Buguroo aims to provide a competitive option that is flexible for organizations.
Going beyond just bugscout static analysis, Buguroo also has other technologies, including one called bugblast, which is a suite that can perform multiple types of code audits. Static analysis is typically associated with software code that is in development, while dynamic analysis is a type of code audit on completed and compiled code that is running on a system.
“Bugblast combines the static analysis with dynamic analysis as well as scanners to check running services,” Ferrezuelo explained.
There is also an audit in Bugblast that Buguroo calls “early warning” that is based on threat intelligence to help detect potential risks, he said. The threat intelligence piece is powered in part by Buguroo’s bugthreat intelligence platform.
“We have honeypots that allow hackers to attack us,” Ferrezuelo said. “We learn what attack techniques hackers are using and what information they are trying to steal.”
With the threat intelligence data, Buguroo is also able to identify if its clients are under attack and what potential risks might exist. One example cited by Ferrezuelo is a hacker going after a bank. The hacker can attempt to directly attack the bank, which is where the bugscout and bugblast tools will help to analyze applications for potential weaknesses. A hacker could also target end-users in a bid to exploit a bank. The bugthreat platform can gather information such as usernames and passwords that hackers are stealing.
“So we can help the bank to protect the end-user before hackers sell their data and commit further fraud,” Ferrezuelo said.
The other product that is being launched as part of the Buguroo portfolio is the bugfraud defense platform. Ferrezuelo explained that the bugfraud defense technology is installed in an organization’s Web server and protects in real-time against phishing, session hijacking and malware attacks.
“The end-user doesn’t need to install anything on their device; just with code on the Web server, the end-user can be protected,” Ferrezuelo said.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.