Two entrepreneurs with a very particular profile launch a startup, called DoubleYou. The objective is toimprove the level of protection of Apple devices, on a global scale. The idea here is not to offer an antivirus or security application, because those are the ones being targeted here. DoubleYou wants to offer them a solution for more protection, with a new approach that imitates computer hackers.
Who are the founders?
© Patrick Wardle
The first is Patrick Wardle and he nicknames himself “the mad scientist of the laboratory”. He is the “hacker” of the group, and worked at the NSA from 2006 to 2008. TechCrunchwho spoke with the two men, reports:
Wardle then worked as an offensive security researcher for years before embarking on independent research at Apple regarding macOS defensive security. Since 2015, Wardle has developed free and open source macOS security tools under the umbrella of his Objective-See Foundation, which also organizes the Apple-focused Objective by the Sea conference.
The second is Mikhail Sosonkin, a former offensive cybersecurity researcher, who worked in Apple labs from 2019 to 2021. According to its co-founder Patrick Wardle: “ Mike may not brag, but he’s an incredible software engineer “.
Nature of the project
According to Patrick and Mikahil, the security tools offered in the ecosystem could benefit from better security, without more resources. Former Apple researcher says:
We don’t need to use new technology to make this work. What we need is to use the tools available and place them in the right place
According to him, the method of protection must be reviewed, by imitating the attackers’ methodology. Their aim is to fight against ransomware and malware. DoubleYou says it is currently developing a method that analyzes all Mac processes, with the aim of detect and block any untrusted code. The tool could also monitor and block DNS anomalies.
