It just takes infiltrating one computer in a company network for someone to gain access to a treasure trove of privileged information.
In many instances, cybersecurity products only protect the "outside" of the company's network. Think firewalls or antivirus protection. But few products actually focus on ensuring that once an attack happens that it stays contained to the one computer or account that attackers gained access to.
Cryptonite is different. With its new product, rolled out officially today, the company focuses on not only preventing an attack from breaching the network, but also on preventing an attack from hopping from one computer to another in the same network — something that could've been useful in the Yahoo! or Target breaches in last couple of years.
"A lot of these attacks start by organizations either downloading the wrong email on their desktop or an insider threat taking over a computer, but once that happens, this malware goes out and collects all this information," said Michael Simon, president and CEO of Cryptonite, in an interview.
"What we do is enable any network that we're protecting to actively shield itself by preventing this process."
Cryptonite spun out of Maryland-based defense contractor Intelligent Automation, with Simon, a serial entrepreneur, at the helm. In 2010, the U.S. Air Force was looking for a defensive posturing product to protect their networks from leaking to cyberattackers. It was then when they contracted Intelligent Automation out for five years to come up with a solution. In 2015, Cryptonite quietly spun out of Intelligent Automation, with only the technology and a few key employees following it.
Since then, they've been in stealth mode. The team has been quietly testing its product with key clients, and they've landed a total of $5 million in funding. Today, with the key research and development completed, they're making their product launch official.
Among the investors in Cryptonite is Ron Gula, who was the CEO and co-founder of Columbia, Md.-based Tenable Network Security for 13 years. In January, he started up his own investment firm with his wife, Cyndi, called Gula Tech Adventures. The portfolio includes companies like Polarity, Flashpoint and, now, Cryptonite.
"A lot of times people buy security products that are duplicative," Gula said. "This is something that's very unique, and it really helps on the inside of the network. This is something new, and that's something I really like to look for."
When pitching themselves to ideal clients, Cryptonite doesn't care too much about the size of the company. Instead, they're targeting companies that are facing the same issue: Critical cyber vulnerability use cases. "These are organizations that have problems that, in some cases, are un-protectable with today's technologies," Simon said.
Places like hospitals and medical facilities fall within that category due to Food and Drug Administration policies that regulate medical devices, making it difficult to update the device's technology.
Customers can pick between two different price points: a one-time license fee or a subscription model, that works much like a "lease-to-own" product because consumers are paying off the product Cryptonite installs.
Cryptonite is also focusing on finding the right partners to help them mobilize their technology. Respected organizations will pair up with Cryptonite to sell the product to similar clients, for instance.
"We're very clearly a product company, so as we evolve, we are going through partners versus going directly ourself," Simon said. "A partner might be the respected organization that might help a hospital implement their cyber hygiene, if you will, and we'll be working with that partner to sell our product."
Simon is a big believer that cybersecurity doesn't just have one solution. Each network is different and requires different pieces to become fully secured. So, in the near future, Cryptonite will focus heavily on acquiring new partnerships with other cybersecurity companies.
"We can't approach cybersecurity like we're the holistic solution," Simon said. "We're a piece of a much bigger puzzle."
