Fit Leaking

July 30 2020

The term "Fit Leaking" was coined not long after the fitness app, Strava inadvertently disclosed a US military base location. Citizen Lab Senior Researcher John Scott-Railton developed this term to describe how one company’s “God’s Eye View” of fitness data reveals large amounts of secret and private information.

Strava, by releasing vast amounts of sensitive user data, has made it easier to illustrate the dangers posed by the vast amount of location information that we share with popular services. Most services that collect this kind of information have never, and likely will never, publicly display the extent of the data that they have collected.

Just last week, another horrifying fit leak incidence happened and lasted an agonizingly long 4 days. A ransomware attack against Garmin that took down the GPS company’s fitness tracking apps, flight and marine navigation, customer service infrastructure, and most of its services, was a devastating attack that should worry anyone. The attack, which encrypted much of Garmin’s data, demonstrates that companies that collect and use highly sensitive GPS, health, and fitness data are targets for hackers and that Garmin—one of the giants in this space—did not take cybersecurity seriously.

The tempo of attacks is going up, and as large chunks of the workforce are operating remotely and based on VPN, the ability to counter is dangerously thin and stretched.

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Cybersecurity Startups Fighting Ransomware:

Acronis International GmBH is a privately-held software company that provides data protection services, including backup, recovery, and security solutions for physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Acronis International also offers storage management and disaster recovery products. These products are designed for offices as well as small, medium, and multinational companies spanning across the banking, government, health care, retail, and technology sectors. Acronis International was founded in 2002 and maintains headquarters in Woburn, Massachusetts.

VMware Carbon Black’s cloud endpoint protection provides all types of ransomware on all endpoints. AppControl is the strongest ransomware protection for servers and critical systems. Carbon Black created an innovative cloud-native security platform with a smart, lightweight agent, and an AI/ML-based Data Lake in the Cloud that provides comprehensive protection of endpoints and defense against a variety of threats.

FireEye is a publicly-traded cybersecurity company headquartered in Milpitas, California. It has been involved in the detection and prevention of major cyber attacks. It provides hardware, software, and services to investigate cybersecurity attacks, protect against malicious software, and analyze IT security risks.

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The pandemic has changed how people—and especially older ones—interact with their friends, family members, and co-workers, creating big opportunities. [Read more].

Since last week, PrivCo has added:
765 Profile Updates | 169 M&A Deals | 167 Funding Activities

Funding & Deal Highlights:

Los Angeles-based Mira, a developer of virtual reality software aimed at helping workers in the enterprise and industrial sector, raises $10M in a funding round. The funding came from Sequoia, Happiness Ventures, and Blue Bear Capital. The startup was founded by Ben Taft, Matt Stern, and Montana Reed. Mira says it develops both hardware and software which acts as a "wearable workflow platform" for workers.

Siepe, a trusted provider of technology, data, and analytics, closes a Series A funding round led by a group of high net worth individuals.

With roots also in Atlanta, Grubbly Farms identifies as a market leader in providing sustainable insect-based feed for backyard chickens — the keeping of which has become much more popular in the last several years, accelerating during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the emergence of homesteading. The company recently raised $2.9M in seed funding.

Allena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a late-stage, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing first-in-class, oral enzyme therapeutics to treat patients with rare and severe metabolic and kidney disorders, announces that, due to demand, the underwriter has agreed to increase the size of the previously announced public offering and purchase on a firm commitment basis 5,125,384 shares of common stock of the Company, at a price to the public of $1.30 per share, less underwriting discounts, and commissions. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about July 30, 2020, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

BioTheryX, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company harnessing the power of protein modulation to treat difficult diseases, announces it has closed a $35M Series D financing. The round was led by MSD Partners, L.P.

boostr, the leading omnichannel CRM and Order Management platform designed for Media & Advertising companies, announces the closing of $7M in a Series A funding.

True Link Financial, which provides financial services — specifically, today in the form of prepaid Visa cards and investment management — aimed at the three demographics, announces that it has closed a Series B of $35M, led by Khosla Ventures with strong participation from Centana Growth Partners, an investor that specializes in financial services. We understand the valuation is now around $115M.

Enova International and OnDeck, announce that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Enova will acquire all outstanding shares of OnDeck in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $90M. The implied price of $1.38 per OnDeck share reflects a 43.6% premium to its 90-day volume-weighted average price and a 90.4% premium based on the closing price of $0.73 per OnDeck share on July 27, 2020.

LabCorp’s drug development business, Covance, acquires GlobalCare, a provider of patient-centric decentralized clinical trial support services.

Sharecare, the digital health company that helps people manage all their health in one place, today announced its acquisition of WhiteHatAI, an innovator in artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare payment integrity applications. WhiteHatAI marks Sharecare’s 16th acquisition; financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Edifecs, Inc., a Bellevue, Washington-based global health information technology solutions company, receives a growth investment from TA Associates and Francisco Partners.

Mindoula, a leading population health management company focused on transforming behavioral healthcare in the U.S., announces it has secured a strategic investment from Boston-based growth equity firm, Equality Asset Management.

Gemspring Capital, a middle-market private equity firm, is pleased to announce its acquisition of Cforia Software, LLC (“Cforia”), a leading provider of order-to-cash (OTC) automation software.

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