This press release was translated from its offical version in German. Please find the original PDF further down.
Fight against hackers - Automated crash test for websites attracts investors
Checking web applications for security holes costs developers a lot of work, time and money. The four founders from Munich, Felix Brombacher, Janosch Maier, René Milzarek and Daniel Schosser have set themselves the goal of automating this safety check. With success: Since the founding of their Crashtest Security GmbH in February 2017, the founders have already convinced over 180 users of their security tests, including well-known agencies and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) service providers.
This has now attracted the interest of several investors. As part of a seed financing round, the company raised a mid-six-digit amount at the end of March 2018. The lead investor in the financing round comes from the BayStartUp network. The past president of the Information Security Society Switzerland (ISSS), long time Cyber Security Lecturer at the ETH Zurich and President of the Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC) Thomas Dübendorfer is still among the investors. In addition, many internet entrepreneurs are now investing in Crashtest Security GmbH. Among them are the founders of Contovista Gian Reto à Porta and Nicolas Cepeda, the founders of Grünspar Gerrit Ellerwald and Sebastian Kotzwander, as well as graduate and DAA founder Pascal Tilgner.
"Thanks to Crashtest Security, I now find hard-to-find vulnerabilities in websites much faster and more reliable. Those who want to avoid a data leak on their website and avoid possible hefty penalties as a result of the EU data protection regulation that will come into force in May 2018 now have a professional tool to efficiently and automatically check their websites for security vulnerabilities after each adaptation", says Thomas Dübendorfer.
Investors strengthen sales skills
The investor money flows above all into the structure of the sales department. "The experience of our new shareholders will help us a lot," says Crashtest Security co-founder and CEO Felix Brombacher. "They all have already successfully sold SaaS solutions across Europe." They also know the business in which Crashtest Security operates. The Munich-based company focuses on web applications in its automated security tests - regardless of whether they are already in productive use or are still under development. The security scans are particularly suitable for SaaS providers as well as software agencies that develop web applications on behalf of customers. "The numerous customers prove the benefits of the security software. The fact that it is operated as a service in the cloud greatly increases its scalability", says Gerrit Ellerwald. For example, new customers can have their applications checked for vulnerabilities directly after logging in.
Crashtest Security GmbH helps its customers not only to discover software vulnerabilities in the development cycle with the help of artificial intelligence and to automatically document them in PDF vulnerability reports, but also to shut them down immediately thanks to helpful explanations in a security wiki. This in turn strengthens today's indispensable protection against hacker attacks and increases data security for companies, users, operators, and developers alike.
About Crashtest Security
Crashtest Security GmbH is a Munich IT security company founded in February 2017. Their Crashtest Security Suite gives web developers the ability to perform automated penetration testing during software development and live operation. With the help of artificial intelligence, weak points are detected, the protection against hacker attacks is increased and better data security is created for companies, users, operators, and developers.
