Apart from antivirus apps, the cybersecurity industry has traditionally been business-to-business, with regular Internet users left to fend for themselves. And older people, who didn’t grow up with the Internet and smartphones, are perhaps the most vulnerable.
ZoraSafe, a startup founded by sisters Catherine Caro and Ellie King Caro, wants to step in and help them. Their idea is to create an app that not only protects older people from scammers and hackers, but also teaches them to stay safe through gamified microlearning, Katherine and Ellie told TechCrunch ahead of the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, where ZoraSafe will be part of the startup battlefield.
The app hasn’t been released yet, but Katherine and Ellie hope to launch it in a month. It will cost $12.99 per month for individual customers, and higher rates for family and group plans, he said.
Katherine explained in a phone call that the first version of the app will have several features, such as a mode to scan QR codes for malware or phishing, the ability to send suspicious SMS text messages and emails to ZoraSafe and a feature to share any known scam or threat with the app so that it can be added to the database to help other users.
“We’re trying to encourage social sharing of scams, so that we can alert the entire Zora network at once, so that one person is alerted to that scam, and then we can make sure that everyone in that community is protected immediately,” Katherine said.
Future releases will also include a feature that will allow users to have ZoraSafe join a suspicious phone call, so that the company’s AI system can figure out whether it is a scam or a deepfake call. However, in that case, according to Katherine, the app will not listen or record the call.
Once the app detects a threat, it will start a chat that will explain to the user what the threat was and teach them how to recognize and deal with similar situations in the future, Ally said.
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“The whole purpose of this is to create flexibility and hopefully make it so that even if you’re not directly interacting with the app, you’re a little more aware of when you’re interacting online,” he said.
Ally said the AI engine is designed with privacy in mind, doing 85% of the processing on the device, and only 15% in the cloud, which they claim will “cleanse your personal information before it leaves your device.”
Katherine also said that they are planning to create an “NFC sticker” that will be incorporated into the phone case so that users can immediately pick up the app and alert their caregivers if they receive a deepfake call or even if they fall down. This is one of the ways they plan to get around iOS’s restrictions on apps monitoring what happens on other apps. Another approach is to have a “Share to ZoraSafe” option in the iOS menu that would allow users to send text messages or emails to the company’s system.
Ultimately, the sisters said they want to expand ZoraSafe to children as well, partner with schools and launch the app in different languages, starting with Spanish.
If you want to learn more about ZoraSafe – as well as check out dozens of other companies, hear their pitches, and listen to guest speakers on four different stages – join us at Disrupt October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. Learn more here.
