Fraud-detection firm Human Security gets $100 million in funding

Human Security (formerly White Ops) has closed $100 million in funding led by WestCap, with additional investment from NightDragon and other current investors. The firm will use this capital to accelerate its expansion into new markets and scale its engineering, detection and product teams. With this backing, Human will protect substantially more enterprises and internet platforms, making the internet safer, it said in a statement.

“With this growth investment ... we will expand our leadership position to build a more secure and more human internet,” said Tamer Hassan, co-founder and CEO of Human. He added that the firm is today capable of "verifying the humanity of 15 trillion interactions per week".

Human protects enterprises and internet platforms from attacks and fraud across application security, digital advertising, and performance marketing. In 2021, the company's revenue growth rate double year over year, according to a media statement.

Human's technology platforms have made several notable interventions to slow the spread of bots across enterprise networks. Examples of takedowns include: Pareto—a sophisticated CTV botnet —in cooperation with Roku and Google; 3ve, by bringing together the FBI, Google, Facebook and others in the industry; and Methbot, which recently culminated in the self-proclaimed ‘King of Fraud’ responsible for the operation being sentenced to 10 years in prison.

According to a company statement, 77% of all cyberattacks are bot-based, and they can attack company networks in many ways. Cybercriminals can send fake requests to create fake accounts, take over accounts and commit credit card fraud, manipulate popularity and consensus, contaminate user data, defraud digital advertising and marketing campaigns, and snipe or hoard online goods and services.

This bot activity is a threat not just to enterprises, but to end consumers too, Human has contended. According to a recent holiday shopping survey with responses from more than 1,000 consumers, 53% of respondents said bots pose a threat to their holiday shopping plans, and 51% said they would shop with a different retailer if bots interfered with their customer experience. 

Human's rapid growth rate and its ability to reduce this fraud seems to have been a big draw with investors. "Human is addressing one of the most fundamental problems on the internet today: keeping digital experiences human,” said Kevin Marcus, partner at WestCap.“We believe they’re uniquely positioned to disrupt the economics of cybercrime and prevent billions in losses.”