Australian Startup cracks World Cup Tech Challenge

Security startup BankVault wins FinTech division of World Cup Tech Challenge.

Pitching to a panel of four Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Australian developer Graeme Speak impressed the judges of the Silicon Cup Forum's World Cup Tech Challenge with BankVault's cloud computing technology that thwarts malware by spinning up a fresh single-use virtual desktop for businesses to conduct online banking.

Targeted at small to medium businesses, BankVault offers the option of accessing the virtual desktop via a web browser, a desktop app or a Linux session booting from USB stick. This disposable virtual machine is rebuilt from scratch after every session, preventing malware which lurks on computers in an effort to steal passwords and other sensitive information as well as hijack online banking sessions.

"We've gone in the opposite direction to the mainstream industry," Speak says. "They're trying to harden a PC which has countless different software products installed, but you'll never solve that problem."

"That's why we've gone the other way, building virtual machines so we can take ownership of the entire software stack – we build it for a moment and then it's gone, so you can't hack something that doesn't exist."

The World Cup Tech Challenge is designed for 'pre-global' companies from around the world which have already found success in their home market and have the potential to expand internationally.

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