In only a few weeks, Group-IB might be celebrating its twentieth birthday. It’s a momentous event for the controversy-marred risk intelligence firm, which helps organizations and governments examine cyberattacks and on-line fraud. And Group-IB is planning to have fun in type.
In an unique interview, Group-IB co-founder and CEO Dmitry Volkov tells information.killnetswitch that the corporate is utilizing this “key juncture” to scale up and change into a world cybersecurity powerhouse; not solely is Group-IB celebrating the two-decade milestone by elevating its first spherical of funding in seven years — it’s additionally planning to make its mark in the US.
A rocky few years
Group-IB could have massive plans developing, however the firm hasn’t had a lot to have fun lately.
Again in September 2021, Group-IB’s co-founder and former CEO Ilya Sachkov was arrested by Russia’s Federal Safety Service, and since convicted of treason by a Moscow court docket and sentenced to 14 years in jail. Investigators have mentioned Sachkov was suspected of passing categorized data to a international nation, however no different particulars in regards to the case have been revealed.
Sachkov’s arrest got here after the 37-year-old cybersecurity knowledgeable spearheaded a transfer of Group-IB’s headquarters from Russia to Singapore after the U.S. authorities accused Moscow of meddling within the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Sachkov, who had been important of the Russian authorities up to now, mentioned on the time that shifting to Singapore was a part of the corporate’s efforts to develop its enterprise and stay impartial.
Months after Sachkov’s arrest, Group-IB — now headed by Volkov — additional distanced itself from Russia by asserting it was leaving the nation totally. Group-IB, as soon as seen as a shining star in Russia’s home-grown tech trade, accomplished its exit from Russia in April.
Volkov says that whereas Group-IB by no means saved that it was based in Russia a secret, it was clear the corporate’s ties to the nation have been harming its relationship with worldwide purchasers — notably following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Volkov offered his stake in Group-IB’s Russia-based enterprise to the corporate’s native administration, and the standalone Russian enterprise now operates underneath the model F.A.C.C.T. Group-IB’s branding and emblems will stop to be in operation in Russia by the tip of 2023.
Group-IB is a supplier of proprietary cybersecurity options that helps organizations to forestall cyberattacks, breaches, and on-line fraud. The corporate counts over 500 enterprise clients, together with supply large DHL and Bulgarian banking large DSK Financial institution, and tells information.killnetswitch that it makes virtually 40% of its revenue from the APAC area.
When it first introduced its exit from the Russian market, Group-IB mentioned it was targeted on increasing its presence within the Asia-Pacific and Center Japanese markets, the place it intends to open new digital crime resistance facilities, or DCRCs, to guard its purchasers towards focused cyberattacks.
The corporate is now trying to create a world community of impartial DCRCs, every geared up with the experience to evaluate the native specificities and risk panorama of the area on which they’re primarily based. Volkov tells information.killnetswitch that Group-IB plans to enter the Latin American market in 2024, earlier than increasing to the US in 2026.
World domination
Group-IB is an outlier within the cybersecurity trade. Whereas it’s not the one expertise firm to have exited Russia lately, it’s one of some to stay self-sufficient. The corporate raised a modest $1 million in 2016 and has since relied on natural income to develop its enterprise by 50% year-on-year, Volkov tells information.killnetswitch.
To broaden globally, the corporate is trying to elevate for the primary time in seven years. “We need to pace up our enterprise and expertise improvement, and it’s in all probability a great second for us to boost now,” Volkov mentioned. He added that the corporate was “already in dialog” with some potential strategic companions, although he wouldn’t be pushed on who.
This funding will gas Group-IB’s growth into the Americas and its ambitions to construct DCRCs in each area to change into a “decentralized firm.”
“In the event you have a look at different cybersecurity firms, they’re all the time very centralized,” Volkov mentioned. “We need to make each single level of presence of Group-IB as impartial as attainable.”
Group-IB’s growth plans come as different cybersecurity distributors are shedding employees. The corporate plans to make use of this time to recruit technical consultants in varied areas, who could be accountable for digital forensics, incident and emergency response, and cyber forensics. (Volkov added that every one potential candidates would endure a polygraph. “Everybody — it doesn’t matter what sort of function — should do a lie detector.”) As soon as the corporate begins to herald income from that area, Group-IB will add layers, corresponding to risk intelligence, after which “replicate” the identical set-up in one other area.
Volkov says the corporate has already began to rent in Latin America.
