RFence raises 1.3 million to secure sensitive sites

A drone, a cell phone, a walkie-talkie or any other electronic object emits waves. That is why RFence secures so-called sensitive sites by monitoring the radio frequencies of their environment via sensor boxes installed around them. The software, called Horus, weaves a kind of digital net capable of locating in real time any suspicious radio emission, a sign of a presence or an intrusion attempt.

Created by Gauthier Traisnel, Nicholas Collier, victor samain and Damien Vialloux Within the Lille start-up studio Alacrité, the company has just raised 1.3 million euros to improve its detection and localization algorithms, but also to develop new cybersecurity functionalities. “This will be more focused on the analysis of device behavior, to see what type of data is sent and on which other device, in an environment that is more complicated to monitor: indoors”, explains Gauthier Traisnel, president. .

Industry 4.0 targeted

More than half of this financing is done in capital, subscribed by its partner Alacrité, the seed fund Fira 2 of Finovam Gestion and the Canadian investment fund Wesley Clover International, shareholder of Alacrité. The rest is a loan from Bpifrance. Next June, RFence will launch its product through distributors and integrators, but also intends to expand this network.

Beyond the 11,000 so-called sensitive sites in France: data centers, airports, nuclear power plants, Seveso classified sites, etc., any company with a highly digitized process that is part of industry 4.0 can be a target. “A cyberattack on their computer network can paralyze all activity,” he points out.

“Companies today are more focused on physical intrusions or external hacks on their Internet networks, but there is a hole in the racket: wireless communication,” he adds. “ Radio frequency monitoring can identify a computer that operates abnormally in the middle of the night and is therefore the subject of a cyberattack via, for example, a USB key maliciously introduced without the knowledge of the personnel. »

According to a study by the Gartner agency, “25% of cyberattacks go through a connected object, which can range from a small sensor to a telephone, via a simple thermometer”, illustrates Victor Samain.