Insight into Infrastructure with CybernetIQ


CybernetIQ is an Ottawa-based company that specializes in enterprise network and control system security products, with its flagship product being the Control Layer Assessment Workstation, otherwise known as CLAW. CLAW is a unique platform that aggregates an organization’s existing cybersecurity infrastructure into a single view. As a result, operators and security analysts are empowered to detect real-time threats in their network with unprecedented efficiency.

CybernetIQ Background

CybernetIQ is an Ottawa-based startup led by Founder and CEO Joe Cummins, a serial entrepreneur and subject matter expert in cybersecurity who often shares his wealth of knowledge at security conferences across the world.

Joe founded CybernetIQ with a grant from Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) to develop tools for the protection of critical infrastructure networks. Utilizing local Ottawa resources such as students from Carleton University, business support from our long-time member Invest Ottawa, and now CENGN for technical support and infrastructure services, CybernetIQ is poised to be a high-growth Canadian company in the cybersecurity industry. The company will be closing its first seed round in the first half of 2019, which in parallel with product testing at CENGN, will take them into the marketplace.

Challenges in the Security Industry

Our society and economy are more reliant on both enterprise and critical infrastructure networks now, more than ever before. As networks grow, so too does the overall surface area that malicious actors can use to breach them. The enhanced risk of malicous activity increases the neccesity for complete real-time visibility of the entire network infrastructure.

For network operators to truly monitor an entire infrastructure, they are required to combine and align data from several sources to understand the complete topology. The skillset required to do so calls for highly qualified individuals, and with the Canadian demand for cybersecurity talent increasing at 7% annually, the country is expected to see a labour shortage in this area. CybernetIQ’s platform aleviates these issues by enabling current security network visibility and eases the complexity for operators and analysts to achieve it.

CybernetIQ Interface

Shedding Light on the Entire Infrastructure

CybernetIQ’s CLAW is a single platform that organizations can use to aggregate, visualize, and monitor data from a plurality of sources across an entire network. This provides network operators and analysts with a real-time depiction of risk assessments, security architecture reviews, and visualization of vulnerabilities or discovered threats. In addition to coverage of the entire network, one of the main advantages of CLAW is its intuitive interface. The interface provides vital information to security analysts and their leadership teams for quick identification and eradication of security issues and threats that arise.

Project Goals

In their commercialization project at CENGN, CybernetIQ will be testing CLAW with different virtual firewalls such as Cisco’s ASAv, Juniper Networks‘ vSRX, and the open source pfSense. The product management team of CybernetIQ and CENGN will be monitoring each integration and will be able to modify the product as required throughout the project. A major milestone of the project will be to enhance the algorithms of the solution to become more vendor agnostic. Becoming more adaptable to different firewalls will be a key driver of increased sales growth for CybernetIQ as their solution will become applicable to a broader range of clients.

New Opportunities

Completion of the CENGN project will unlock a number of key opportunities for the security company. As a startup in the security industry, CybernetIQ does not have the track record of other medium and large-sized security companies. Testing at CENGN provides independent third-party validation of CLAW that will help reduce the risk of customer adoption. CybernetIQ currently has short-term licenses with several high-profile organizations. A CENGN project provides testing and product development opportunities that will lead to long-term licenses with additional clients and will grow CybernetIQ in both sales and size.

CybernetIQ is a growing Canadian business that is using the services at CENGN through the Next Generation Network Program (NGNP). The NGNP is a Government of Ontario program offered through a partnership between CENGN and the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) that is providing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Ontario access to the CENGN Testbed. CENGN’s digital infrastructure is connecting SMEs like CybernetIQ to state-of-the-art equipment and network services, which will allow these companies to test and validate their solutions. Are you interested in completing a CENGN project? Learn more by clicking here.

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About the Author

CENGN, Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, drives technology innovation and industry growth through our testbed, technical expertise, talent development, and partner ecosystem. Through our projects, CENGN enables small and medium Canadian Enterprises to test and validate promising technologies, removing barriers to product commercialization and accelerating market growth.

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