AIS expands with demand for cybersecurity

ROME — As a kid growing up, the only persons concerned with cybersecurity were science-fiction characters such as Captain Midnight and Dick Tracy. Today, reality has trumped science fiction as imaginary decoder rings and wristwatches have been replaced by real microchips and a world connected by the Internet. With the explosion of digital devices, we all live in cyberspace.

This interconnectivity has attracted a concomitant explosion in the volume of sophisticated electronic attacks, fraud, and espionage, which in turn, has spawned the rapid growth of the cybersecurity industry. In 1999, there was only one company in Washington, D.C. lobbying exclusively on data issues. U.S. Senate records show there were more than 500 companies registered to lobby on the issue in the first quarter of this year. Today, there are 165 schools in America educating undergraduate and graduate students to become cybersecurity professionals.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Defense allocated $23 billion over a five-year period to counter cyber threats to our national security. Merger-and-acquisition activity has intensified, and the deals-market is red hot in search of boutique security firms, some fetching upwards of $1 billion.

Experts who protected American security before 9/11 are now forming their own consulting firms to cash in on the demand. Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, two former cabinet chiefs, now include Fortune 500 companies among their customers. Gen. Keith Alexander, who directed the National Security Agency, set up shop just a few weeks after leaving his post.

Sparking the rapid growth of cybersecurity is the recognition by business, government, and consumers that the threat is real. Two years ago, Edward Snowden stole a trove of documents which have both embarrassed the U.S. government and exposed our national-security plans. His occasional release of additional documents keeps the issue front and center in the public’s mind.

The recent breach by hackers of credit-card information on file with America’s largest retailers has stunned the public and forced business to rethink its strategy against cyber attacks. Neiman Marcus experienced a sophisticated breach of credit-card data that occurred over a three-and-a-half month period: Cyber criminals took control of a vulnerable server that allowed them to bypass the point-of-sales security system. The company was in compliance with standards meant to protect transaction data. Hackers also stole 40 million credit-card numbers from Target, which has cost the company nearly $150 million to date.

Right place, right time
Assured Information Security, Inc. (AIS), headquartered in Rome, is well-positioned to take advantage of the demand for cybersecurity. “AIS is on the cutting edge of cyber-security technology,” says Charles K. Green, company president and CEO. “We are always developing new and innovative technologies, and our services are designed to assist customers in safeguarding their sensitive information, communications, infrastructure, and critical assets.

The company can address a wide spectrum of potential vulnerability points and assess and eliminate them, as well as protecting against emerging threats. Whether the concern is a secure operating environment for remote access, advanced debugging, reverse engineering, host-protection, access to multiple security domains, automated encryption or decryption, analysis of network pcap (packet capture) files, wireless security, or forensic services, AIS’s advanced engineering and computer-science departments have the ability to address and overcome technical challenges.”

AIS was incorporated by Charles Green and three other partners in 2001. The company leases a 46,000-square-foot headquarters building and currently occupies 31,000 square feet. The boutique cybersecurity firm has seven locations: Rome, Dayton, Baltimore, Portland, Denver, San Antonio, and Omaha. The employee count is 121, with 105 located in Central New York, and 24 additional positions are currently open. Annual sales are $20 to $25 million.

AIS is a “C” corporation with 14 stockholders. The building is owned by the Griffiss Local Development Corp. “Today, our customer base is 99 percent government,” states Barry McKinney, the company’s senior vice president and director of corporate development. “In light of sequestration, we are determined to diversify our revenue streams by pursuing more private-sector customers, including those in health care, insurance, legal, banking and finance, retail, and energy. Currently, we are focusing on small and mid-size businesses in Central New York.”

How does AIS separate itself from the competition? “Our bread and butter is R&D,” continues McKinney, “that’s what really distinguishes us from the competition. We have years of experience working on sophisticated projects for DoD (Department of Defense) and the Air Force Lab. This experience allows us to understand a problem, unlike the ‘button clickers’ who just push buttons to see what works.

“We have learned that one size does not fit all: each job has to be tailored to the customer’s needs. More than 100 members of the staff are engineers or scientists, and 50 percent hold advanced degrees or are pursuing them. Nearly all have security clearances. AIS has been awarded two patents, and we have another half-dozen pending. We’re not just capable of solving today’s problem; we’re thinking about generation-after-next concepts and capabilities. (A generation in cybersecurity is 18 months.)”

“What also separates AIS from the competition is the industry relationships we have built,” adds Steven J. Flint, the company’s COO. “We may compete against major companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop, and Raytheon, but we also team up with them on many projects. We call this friendly rivalry ‘competiamate.’ In addition, AIS has built strong collaborations with more than a dozen highly regarded universities. [Finally,] … we share our knowledge with the customers: It’s a transparent process.”

Finding and retaining employees can be a challenge for a business located in the Mohawk Valley. “Our goal is to make it work for a prospective hire,” Green asserts. “We offer competitive pay and performance bonuses plus a host of benefits, including profit-sharing, a 7 percent 401(k) contribution by the company with immediate employee vesting, a 100 percent education reimbursement, professional development, 100 percent health-care premium, and disability and life-insurance premiums.

“AIS has a casual working environment that promotes team collaboration and motivates employees to succeed both personally and professionally. Often we have to find a position for a trailing spouse, and our seven locations give us an advantage in finding the right opportunities … We work closely with a number of area colleges such as Clarkson [University], SUNY Binghamton, Buffalo, SUNYIT, and Utica College to recruit their graduates. We contract with professors to serve as consultants and encourage internships at the company both for undergraduates and graduates.”

AIS works with a number of area vendors for professional services: Oneida Savings Bank for financing; Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC for labor law; Heslin, Rothenberg, Farley & Mesiti P.C. (Albany) for intellectual-property issues; and Benefit Consulting Group, Inc. (Syracuse) for human resources.

Green has been a part of Rome’s cyber initiatives since 1997, when he joined the Air Force Research Laboratory as a contractor. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from SUNYIT. McKinney earned his bachelor’s degree from SUNY Buffalo and his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. He is a systems-process-and-design analyst with a background in statistics. Prior to joining AIS, he served as the basic-research adviser to the AFRL/Information Directorate in Rome and also was assigned to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in London, the European office of Aerospace Research and Development. Flint brings 37 years of defense-technology research to his position at AIS. He holds degrees in physics from SUNY Geneseo and in electrical engineering from the SUNY University at Buffalo.