Until today, you've probably never heard of Reston, Va.-based cybersecurity startup Verodin or its founder, Christopher Key.
And that's exactly how Key has wanted it.
Verodin has been operating quietly—in "stealth mode"—for about two years to focus on research and development. The firm's first product is a software platform that can be used by businesses to measure the effectiveness of their cybersecurity defenses. Key, who in 2003 also founded ENIRA Technologies—acquired by ArcSight for an undisclosed amount—said that Verodin has the potential to shake up the cybersecurity industry.
In today's market, the private cybersecurity business can be described as a loose conglomerate of non-uniform vendors that are predominantly selling "point solutions," otherwise known as single service tools, explained Key. These products normally do not integrate seamlessly with one another, and as such the security they all seem to promise is somewhat nullified; gaps are left in the wall.
"There are many tools to assist in finding vulnerabilities or poking holes, but I feel in some cases these vendors have missed the point of why we are all doing any of this," he explained. "Verodin is focused on measurably maturing the defenses of an organization. The goal is to proactively understand how the people, processes and technologies that make up the security organization will respond to attacks. Our goal is to give the defenders a leg up by seeing exactly how their tools will perform and alert before a real attack can slip by them."
With roughly 20 years of experience as a security analyst, entrepreneur and consultant, Key decided that his next company after ENRIRA would produce a product that fulfills what is perhaps a vulnerable company's greatest need: access to affordable, unbiased, quantitative information concerning their cybersecurity product purchases.
Verodin calls its platform the "most comprehensive means for organizations to continuously measure and improve the performance of cybersecurity technologies, people and processes protecting critical data and IT assets." And that translates into a database full of updated and customizable cyberattacks along with a means to measure the effectiveness of those hacks for clients.
In essence, customers can use Verodin to run closed, simulated cyberattacks on themselves, thereby testing the influence of different products and the skill of their analysts. And while Key said that he sees the software one day being used for training purposes, at the moment it is really geared towards helping businesses make better informed decisions about which vendors they do business with.
"There are several key gaps in the market today. At the board level, there is a strong desire to understand the effectiveness of the cyber dollars being spent. At the CISO level, there must be a prioritization of projects and resources, often without a true understanding of defensive gaps, while simultaneously moving the security organization from a preventative mindset to a mindset that embraces detection and response," Key told DC Inno.
An analytics dashboard is central to Verodin's platform, as it supplies analysts with data visualizations regarding the the conditions of a network during simulations.
Importantly, Verodin said that it keeps its cyberattack library up to date with new hacks. In addition, editing tools on the customer-side allow them to create their own sequence-based incidents like malware dumps and/or SQL injections.
Key told DC Inno that his 20-person startup has already raised more than $3 million from a group of prominent private equity investors, which include Cisco, Vital Ventures and Crosslink Capital. However, he declined to discuss the company's pricing model for its first product. Key instead said that pricing was based on the size and volume of data stored by a client.
In the coming year, Key said he hopes to grow Verodin's customer base by growing the internal team and by working closely with a number of reseller, channel and service provider partners. "Integrating Verodin with the products, services and solutions our partners add enormous value to the end customer, and we are very excited to see how these relationships play out," Key explained.
