Wake Forest startup develops code-scanning platform to fight data breaches

WAKE FOREST — Cyber security expert David Giambruno estimates that around 90 percent of breeches occur through code.

However, he’s looking to change that.

With his new startup, Nucleaus, he’s made code scanning easy by offering a platform that continuously monitors code and reports back any vulnerabilities before an attack strikes.

“I wanted to democratize code scanning to make it available to everyone,” he told WRAL TechWire.

“We made code scanning as easy as a spell check.”

Nucleaus founder David Giambruno

The process is simple: For a monthly subscription fee, a client logs in, uploads their code repositories, and starts scanning. Nucleaus takes it from there, providing around-the-clock testing against key cybersecurity standards.

Founded in 2018, the platform already seems to be gaining some traction.

“We’re scanning 2.1 billion lines of code a month,” said Giambruno, a former army drill sergeant who has previously worked as Shutterstock’s chief information officer and Revlon’s senior vice president.

“That’s up 100 percent from last month.”

Nucleaus (named because he believes “code is the center of the world”), under its business name DDMTeK Holding, also recently closed on raising $375,000 in equity, according to a recent SEC filing.

Giambruno said the company is “totally bootstrapped” with most of the funds so far coming from friends and family.

Still, he remains hopeful that this is just the start to something big.

“Code is affecting everything, and it needs to be addressed. We think we’ll be significant.”