RedMarlin, the deep learning-powered fraud prevention company protecting the world's leading brands from counterfeit activity, recently announced the company's new name -- Bolster. The company also announced the launch of Bolster for Good, a first-of-its-kind online customer protection services program specifically for non-profit organizations.
We sat down with Bolster co-founder and CEO Abhishek Dubey to discuss the rebrand, product updates, and this new program.
Tell me a bit about the name change – what prompted it and why Bolster?
For months, we thought long and hard about our company and our mission. What were we doing? What were we trying to do? We quickly realized that our old name, RedMarlin, didn't speak to either. From our free community scanner to slashing online phishing for our customers, we are actively making the internet a safer place -- patching up the gaps of the internet that catch so many of our most vulnerable citizens. After many brainstorms, we realized what we were actually doing is bolstering the internet. The name Bolster became a no-brainer.
What sets Bolster’s technology apart from others in this space?
Zero-day detection and fully automated takedown is what sets us apart. Bolster uses industry-leading computer vision and deep learning models to read a page and give you a verdict without any human interaction. We can detect a site upon creation before a victim or blacklist ever sees it. Our 1/100,000 false positive rate enables us to automatically issue a takedown via API or an industry-accepted automated email. From creation to takedown in minutes.
Additionally, Bolster is one of the first companies (if not the first) to make our machine learning (ML) engine available via API. This means that any customer can programmatically send suspicious URLs to our engine for a fast and accurate verdict. We can do this, because our backend ML engine was built with scale in mind. Most companies with an ML engine on the backend would use the engine to populate a blacklist. Their public API would only allow customers to check URLs against the blacklist, not the actual engine. This process is inherently slower, less sophisticated, and doesn't provide for zero day detection.
What recent improvements have been made to the platform?
We have expanded our suite of ML algorithms for faster and more accurate phishing detection and brand identification. We have built a more robust dashboard for enhanced end-user control and monitoring. Additionally, we've added enterprise features like domain asset management and role-based access management.
What kind of phishing and web scam trends are you seeing during COVID-19? Can we expect more scams?
We've seen a multitude of scams: fake or non-existent medical supplies, video conferencing scams, COVID cryptocurrency scams, COVID charity scams, free testing kits, remote workforce phishing, business email compromise, scams targeting brands with higher usage during the stay-at-home order, government assistance scams, and basic supplies counterfeiting.
What can organizations do to defend against phishing and web scams?
Organizations need to think of a holistic phishing and fraud prevention strategy from employees to partners to customers. Education is important for all groups, but it can be hardest to reach customers. Organizations need to proactively detect and takedown phishing sites to limit their customers and themselves from unnecessary exposure.
Tell me about Bolster for Good – why offer this service to non-profits? What are the qualifications for the application?
When an organization works tirelessly to help those in need, they shouldn't have to worry about a scammer stealing their donations or their users' credentials. Non-profits are under resourced. The current global pandemic will only constrain their budgets. When triaging organizational needs, online fraud prevention isn't a non-profit's number one priority. We don't want non-profits to have to choose between their mission and protecting their employees and donors. As long as your mission is to help people, we want to help you.
This new program, Bolster for Good, allows non-profit organizations to arm themselves forever with industry-leading online phishing and fraud prevention technology at-cost to defend themselves from online scams and account takeovers.