CEO Tina Williams-Koroma founded CyDeploy to give companies a peace of mind when improving system security, ensuring that any updates made won’t disrupt services.
The automated environment verification platform assists organizations in understanding the impact of technological changes like patches and digital transformations.
By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, CyDeploy creates cloud-based replicas — in the lingo, digital twins — of a company’s digital environment. This allows for safe and efficient testing of updates without affecting live systems.
“One of the recurring things that I saw throughout my career in cyber for about 23 years now is this conflict between cybersecurity teams and IT teams,” Williams-Koroma said. “Cyber teams want to deploy changes as soon as possible because they’re measured on whether the company experiences some sort of breach… But they’re not the ones that have the power and control to make the change.”
A common issue, she said, is organizations having so many different applications in their environment that they don’t fully understand how they all interrelate. The issue has only become more prevalent over time.
Williams-Koroma pointed to the recent CrowdStrike incident — where a botched software update caused one of the largest mass outages in IT history — as a prime example of an update to one application having cascading impacts on other applications in the ecosystem.
Most of her firm’s work falls into one of two buckets: implementing patches for existing software or rolling out new security tools. The company is also focusing on the development of artificial intelligence tools to learn how to get ahead of new cyber threats.
Continuing to evolve the company has been made easier by support from TEDCO, the public-private Maryland Technology Development Corporation. It plays an important role in supporting the advancement of Maryland’s cyber industry as a whole, by offering resources, connections and funding opportunities to companies at all stages of development.
Williams-Koroma has used TEDCO’s Network Advisor program, for example, which keeps founders connected with industry experts to seek advice on their specific sales and business development needs. And TEDCO’s Builder Fund provided an investment into the company, allowing CyDeploy to continue supporting clients.
Any external support that helps advance CyDeploy’s work is increasingly critical, Williams-Koroma stressed, because AI is transforming the ways hackers can infiltrate systems.
“Hackers are able to really create some great exploits in shorter and shorter amounts of time,” she said.
“When you think about the amount of time between when a certain vulnerability is known, a common vulnerability enumeration (CVE) is published, and when an exploit might be created, that window prior to AI was maybe a week. But now, you can create the exploit the same day, so the window for companies to act has shortened a lot — and will continue to shorten, almost to the point where it’s like you’re behind already from the time the CVE is published.”
Is the government using the services? For one company, that’s success
Detecting threats with speed is where TeamWorx Security comes in.
The Columbia, Maryland-based data science and software engineering firm offers a wide range of cybersecurity products and services designed to enhance threat detection and incident response.
Key products include cloud-based malware analysis platform MATRIX along with software as a service and mobile collaboration platform Hive-IQ.
Like with CyDeploy, the rise of AI tools is set to play a big role in its work. TeamWorx founder and CEO, Chris Anthony, believes AI can help all industries make improvements with greater ease.
“From a very machine learning perspective, AI can automate repeat processes — things that take up minutes that lead to hours that lead to days and days of your time,” Anthony said. “AI can help us sift through large amounts of information whereas analyzing a piece of malicious software could easily take hours. We’re automating that down to seconds now.”
Anthony knows every tool that can give his business an edge is key. The distinctiveness of TeamWorx’s suite of products has helped it reach the eight-year benchmark, he said — despite others attempting to muscle in.
“There was a very large company in the area that several years ago tried to create the very same thing as one of our products,” Anthony said. “Our product came out and then 18 months later, they came out with almost the same exact thing. They sold that idea to the government for a hundred times more than what we were charging and five years later, they still don’t have a solution. They could never figure out how to build it.”
TeamWorx measures its impact through usability, he said — and the government is its biggest customer. As long as the US Department of Defense and other public entities use its products and consistently return to spend time with them, that translates into success for the TeamWorx team.
And once again, TEDCO has played an important role by investing in the cybersecurity startup and creating new connections for the company to support the company’s growth.
“Whether you’re a startup or more of a seasoned startup or small business, to have TEDCO or a TEDCO-like organization is super important to the overall industry,” Anthony said. “They’re the heart and soul of a lot of the communities that we’re a part of, oftentimes they are a voice of reason.”
Cutting-edge cybersecurity makes for a strong public sector
Few people appreciated the government’s need for involvement in the cutting edge of cybersecurity better than the late Amit Yoran.
The former CEO of Columbia cybersecurity company Tenable, who passed away unexpectedly at the beginning of January following a cancer diagnosis, is not only remembered for his ambition, but his mettle.
“Even as he faced his battle with cancer, Amit’s determination and strength were a source of inspiration to all who knew him,” said Owen Ryan, chairman at California fintech firm BlackLine, on whose board of directors Yoran served. “His resilience and unwavering commitment to making a difference will remain an enduring example.”
Under Yoran’s guidance, Tenable continued making strategic moves to strengthen its position as a cybersecurity leader. His leadership showcased the ingenuity needed to transform an industry.
The entrepreneurial cyber industry is recognized by Maryland state leaders as well.
“Maryland’s cyber leadership is fueled by its unparalleled assets — including the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, our world-class research universities, our federal research presence and our thriving community of private cyber companies,” said Acting Maryland Commerce Secretary Harry Coker, Jr.
This recognition resulted in the creation of the Cyber Maryland program which is working to take advantage of these assets and create a sustainable talent pipeline in the cybersecurity sector. Through this program, Maryland hopes to embrace its potential to become the nation’s cybersecurity hub.
Plus, the Maryland Department of Commerce offers various programs to help companies grow, and the University of Maryland School of Law has a law clinic that provides free support for founders with intellectual property concerns.
While CyDeploy’s Williams-Koroma and TeamWorx’s Anthony both have their sights set on the future, they both understand it’s crucial to always keep the bigger picture in mind.
“Our community is a cybersecurity community, but it’s also the entrepreneurial community,” Anthony said, “and we’ve learned over eight years to embrace, encourage and support all the above in order for us to survive and for us to learn and continue moving forward.”