Editor’s Note: This post was originally shared on the Tesseract Ventures blog, found here.
At Tesseract, we’re working to create a technology ecosystem that helps modern organizations become smarter and better connected through next-generation robotics, 21st-century software, and radically connected platforms. Each piece of this ecosystem has the ability to produce huge amounts of valuable, actionable data—data that can transform the companies that possess it, making them safer and more fulfilling for their workers, as well as more innovative and more efficient.
However, with great power comes great responsibility. Data is a precious commodity that must be protected from attackers, and each piece of an advanced technology ecosystem like Tesseract must be secured against intruders. This is why we have entered into a partnership with CYDERES, Fishtech Group’s Security-as-a-Service division, to secure that data, as well as analyze and respond to possible threats.
By integrating CYDERES’ innovative security and analytics solutions with our own technologies, Tesseract is able to protect its intellectual property as well as strengthen the service we provide to current and future customers.
We asked Tesseract Ventures CEO John Boucard, and CYDERES President, Eric Foster to discuss this exciting new partnership, and how it will impact both companies and their clients.
Eric Foster and John Boucard pose for the original TESS robot at the inception of Tesseract Ventures when John spent time as EIR at Fishtech/Cyderes.
How do Cyderes and Tesseract’s offerings complement each other?
John Boucard, Tesseract Ventures: The alignment of Cyderes and Tesseract completes the offering to our customers by adding a layer of safety and peace of mind. Tesseract will supply an IoT, Robotics, and Analytics platform, and CYDERES will provide both security for the data that is being generated and the high level of customer support and monitoring this kind of advanced technology requires.
Eric Foster, CYDERES: The two offerings will work together seamlessly to create, analyze, visualize, and investigate data. Tesseract sensors and robots feed the CYDERES data pipeline, which analyzes that telemetry for threats. The vast amounts of data produced by Tesseract’s cyber-physical tools are delivered into Google Chronicle and the CYDERES Cloud-Native Analytics Platform to enable intelligent analytics at the speed of thought. Alerts from the analyzed telemetry and the Tesseract robots flow into the CYDERES SOC for 24/7 investigation, detection and response, and then flow out to the client’s Tesseract hub where it can be easily visualized and investigated.
Cyderes 24/7 Command Center
What are some unique threats IoT networks need to be protected from, compared to traditional networks?
John Boucard: Any IoT network creates new threat vectors that can be exploited to create entry points into your private network and data. Each IoT node can be a potential access point. CYDERES provides a hardened network structure to prevent attacks and also identifies potential aggressive activities that need to be responded to.
Eric Foster: We also use the term “attack surface” a lot—meaning how much of your network exists and is exposed to attackers. For most organizations, adding a significant IoT presence means that you are significantly expanding your attack surface, and creating an environment that needs to have both prevention, detection, and response to security threats.
The Tesseract Smart Space in our KC office.
Does CYDERES approach cybersecurity for IoT and AI networks differently than you would more traditional digital platforms?
Eric Foster: Yes and No. Ultimately IoT and OT environments have a lot of the same challenges we’ve been dealing with for 20 or more years in information security, such as knowing where your assets are, ensuring they’re kept up to date with the latest patches and with the properly hardened configurations and are protected with preventative and detective technologies at multiple layers.
At the same time, there are definitely novel cybersecurity challenges presented by IoT and AI technologies. Many run on technology platforms where traditional cybersecurity controls fall short. Luckily, CYDERES has partnerships with leading IOT security solutions like Armis (armis.com) for agentless device security in a world of unmanaged and un-agent-able devices, Illusive Networks (illusivenetworks.com) for deception technology via Illusive IoT Emulations, and Extrahop Reveal(X) (extrahop.com) for network layer detection of IoT threats.
On the construction site, PRISM anchors and badges combined with IoT feed data into Mosaic and the Tesseract SMART SPACE, all under the umbrella of safety Cyderes provides.
Tesseract’s motto is “There’s nothing more human than technology.” How do you view the role of human workers evolving as technologies like IoT networks and predictive analytics become more common in the workplace?
John Boucard: The future we see is one where human workers become more efficient and effective by allowing them to focus on the areas where they add value. An IoT solution is nothing more than data acquisition that is reviewed by both human and predictive models to determine both meaning and direction. In the process, the human workforce becomes better informed, with relevant data delivered faster and in more useful ways than ever before.
Eric Foster:: One of our core philosophies at CYDERES is “human-led, machine-driven.” This alignment in thinking makes us and Tesseract ideal partners. We believe cybersecurity is a problem analogous to flying a modern aircraft—too many decisions need to be made for a completely manual, human-based approach to detection and response of cybersecurity threats. This is what many legacy security services providers offer, however. At the same time, automation, AI, and machine learning are important but are far from the panacea that many security vendors will sell it as.
We find that a skilled human piloting “fly-by-wire” controls, significantly enhanced with automation, orchestration, and judicious application of intelligent statistical analysis (including, but not limited to machine learning) presents a superior approach to both extremes.
Once the building is complete, the same tech stays in place for the new tenant.
Can you walk us through a potential real-life problem, and solution that Cyderes and Tesseract would bring to the situation?
Eric Foster: Let’s take the example of a major retailer who wishes to enhance its employee safety and its guest safety in the post-COVID-19 world. The goal is also to raise shareholder value through increased productivity and reduction of workplace accidents and incidents. The retailer decides to get there by leveraging Tesseract PRISM Proximity Tracking Wearable Sensors in conjunction with a smart building powered by Tesseract Prism Anchor sensors, as well as Tesseract semi-autonomous robotics such as the T.E.S.S. Multi-Mission Sensor Platform.
Now, employee and guest safety and security can be optimized through the creation of proximity alerts for workers, automated analysis of social distancing guidelines including reporting on social distancing and compliance, intelligent analysis of hot zones and chokepoints that cause productivity issues, and the ability to cross-reference individuals and their encounters over a specific period of time.
These sensors and robots generate a tremendous amount of IoT and security telemetry and alert data, which are fed into the CYDERES Cloud-Native Analytics Platform for both intelligent real-time analytics and optionally for human-led, machine-driven analysis by the skilled team of analysts working 24/7 from the CYDERES Cyber Defense Centers.
These analysts can triage alerts, respond to threats, and produce reports, including addressing safety violations, public health, public safety, and more. Instead of being overwhelmed with alerts, the client knows a team of experts is handling it in real-time, and they can instead focus on their business.
All the data and results can be visualized on-premise in the Tesseract Environment, a collaborative workspace designed to create immersive situational awareness and control over highly disparate information streams. It can also be accessed from anywhere via Tesseract’s Mosaic Extended Reality (XR) through virtual reality headsets.
All the while, Tesseract’s networks, data, intellectual property, and the significant interconnected networks of IoT devices and deployed Tesseract technologies throughout the retailer are protected by the award-winning managed detection and response offering from CYDERES, including the CYDERES Cloud-Native Analytics Platform powered by the revolutionary analytics of Google Chronicle and in partnership with the unmatched scale, availability, and performance of Google Cloud.