In December 2017, the federal government revised the rules that govern how companies protect and distribute unclassified information in non-federal information systems and organizations, which is essentially material deemed sensitive, but not government classified.
This type of data is commonly handled by companies that work with the Department of Defense, General Services Information and NASA.
While the updated rules were meant to boost security in an industry frequently targeted by hackers and cyber security criminals, it also added a huge burden to small businesses in the industry.
NeQter Labs is hoping to alleviate this burden with its plug-and-play solution for network-wide visibility and control, protecting proprietary information and enhancing cybersecurity posture. The product provides small businesses with a security information and event management tool, activity monitoring, vulnerability scanning and inventory management.
“We saw it as a need to help small business with this new cybersecurity challenge because it was going to be a big issue,” Patrick Colantonio, director of sales at the company, told Rhode Island Inno. “Enterprise businesses kind of had it figured out and medium-sized companies were a little better, but the small business were the ones that were going to have the hardest time. As a team, we of course have family and friends and people that we work in small business and we saw that as our mission.”
“We want to make it known that you don’t have to close your doors and not meet compliance."
CEO and co-founder Richard Astle first got the idea for NeQter after hearing about the new regulation in 2016 while working in the innovation group at the McLaughlin Research Corporation in Middletown.
Eventually, he spun the company off, although some of the investors and board members are part of both companies.
The company’s plug-in solution enables small businesses to know what is going on in their networks at any time — whether a rogue employee has malicious intent, an unassuming employee shares sensitive information or an adversary has found a loophole into your network.
The solution doesn’t just lists vulnerabilities by severity, but recommends remediations, mitigations or workarounds and performs audits every 24 hours. In addition, NeQter provides built-in tools to guide companies through the new requirements and helps create tailored policies and plans for implementation.
The company is off to a good start.
After completing the product at the end of 2017, it launched a beta and had a 100 percent success rate, where everyone who tested the product went on to purchase it. NeQter had 20 sales in 2017, 100 customers by the end of 2018 and is now approaching 150.
Astle and Colantonio also say the Ocean State has been a great place to launch.
More than $6 billion in defense contracts were performed in Rhode Island between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal 2017, according to the Office of Economic Adjustment.
And although the company has clients in almost all 50 states and some international clients, a little less than one-third of their clients are in the Northeast and Rhode Island.
Moving forward, Colantonio said the company wants to continue to grow its market share in what is a relatively new market and hit over 300 customers by the end of next year.
Astle said he could also see NeQter expanding into other industries outside the Department of Defense.
Some of the company’s tools such as the cybersecurity monitoring, reporting and awareness is a backbone of all major compliance frameworks like the payment card insurance regulation standards and those for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
“We want to make it known that you don’t have to close your doors and not meet compliance. There is away to have your small business affordably and pragmatically address compliance,” said Astle. “Any small company who can’t afford enterprise level tools can get enterprise-level solutions like ours that are easy to use, easy to implement and easy to afford. It’s really best practice for any company and makes an IT person’s jobs easier.”
