Upwind raises $300M for cloud security platform
Upwind Security raises $300M at a $3.8B valuation to expand its automated cloud security platform.
One of the main challenges in cloud security is that environments change regularly. Developers frequently add and remove workloads, which makes it difficult to ensure every software asset follows data protection policies. The same applies to cloud instances and user accounts. Upwind's platform automatically maps the assets in a cloud environment and refreshes the mapping every 30 seconds, so administrators can account for configuration changes as they happen.
Capturing data about those assets has historically required complex and error-prone changes to the operating system. Upwind says it avoided this by using eBPF, a Linux feature that can collect telemetry from the kernel without altering sensitive kernel modules. The observability code is deployed in an isolated sandbox, preventing bugs from entering critical kernel components.
The platform tracks instances, encryption keys, configuration scripts and other cloud assets, along with the relationships among them. With that information, administrators can determine, for example, which documents a given data-visualization application can access. A number of Upwind's observability capabilities are aimed at AI models. The software can automatically generate AI-BOMs, lists of components in an AI application, alerting admins to potentially risky software.
Upwind also uses AI to scan discovered assets for weak points. It evaluates each workload's configuration against security best practices and regulatory requirements, and it performs simulated attacks on important assets, such as trying to connect to a cloud instance hosting a SQL database. According to the company, its platform filters out low-risk flaws using an AI agent called Red and relies on another agent, Blue, to identify hacking attempts.
It is unclear how Upwind plans to spend the new capital. Over the past month it has integrated with about half a dozen third-party cloud services, which suggests its growth roadmap emphasizes increasing the number of systems it can secure for customers.