This cybersecurity business plan sample is focused on the growing information technology (IT) security sector in Boston, Massachusetts. We hope this sample provides you with a brief foundation for starting your own cybersecurity company. Our cybersecurity business plan writers crafted this sample for your review.
Executive Summary
“ProSecure Squad Corporation” operating as “ProSecure Squad” (The Company) was first incorporated in September of 2016 in Massachusetts, Canada and subsequently incorporated in the State of Massachusetts on June 10th 2020. Over the past years ProSecure Squad has developed and patented revolutionary Cyber- security products.
With digital transformation of industries being hastened by factors such as E-Commerce, Internet of Things (IoT), Connected Machines, Self-Driving vehicles, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Coivd-19, there has been an enormous increase in the amount of electronic data.
Despite strong cyber-security defenses implemented, cyber-criminals have been getting past these defenses at an increasingly alarming rate and the cost for an organization to retain end-to-end cybersecurity professionals has become astronomical. This has made the Cybersecurity Market one of the fastest growing industries.
With patented products, an accomplished team of cybersecurity experts, and a clear strategy for product and service deployment, ProSecure Squad is ready to lead the next wave of cybersecurity. The company is focused on making its world class data security solutions accessible and inclusive; therefore, targeting wide-scale adoption from medium to large businesses, and government organizations across the globe.
What makes the company’s offering so unique is our focus on simplifying data resiliency; making it easy to protect your data from being spied on, stolen or held for ransom even if a hacker or malware gets past the current cyber-defenses.
With years of research and development, ProSecure Squad has refined our products and has garnered the interests of large corporations in the security and other Industries. With our offering being tailored to meet the current data security demands, ProSecure Squad is well positioned to become leaders in data security.
ProSecure Squad Corporation is seeking a 15 Million USD capital investment in return for a 15% equity and voting stake in the company. These funds will be allocated to taking the company’s products and services to market through direct sales, marketing, customer onboarding and customer support. With this investment the company will execute on established opportunities, further develop its capabilities, and forge a notable position in one of the fastest growing industry.
Business Overview
“ProSecure Squad International Holdings” a US based company is the parent company of two organizations including ProSecure Squad Corporation (USA) and ProTech (India).
These locations and corporate structure have been strategically chosen to tap into the strengths of the local markets in efforts to develop, deploy and maintain state of the art cyber-security products and achieve rapid market share growth.
Mission Statement
To create the most effective and accessible data security products.
Vision Statement
To quench the world’s thirst for data security.
Growth Formula
ProSecure Squad will lead our family of companies into rapid market share growth with the following junctures:
Accomplished Executive Team
- Levi Atif, Founder and Chief Executive Officer. A proven executive leader with experience in law enforcement, cybersecurity and senior management.
- Adib Waqar, Chief Administrative Officer. Southeast Asia’s foremost security, management, and talent development expert.
- Ali Reza, Head of Sales. Sales guru, with proven track record in both enterprise and startup sale hypergrowth.
- Omar Raja, Director of Security. Cyber Security Leader with years of experience in cyber-security, strategy, incident response, and engineering
- Dr. David Khan, Advisor. Professor of Information Engineering at MIT, leading expert in large-scale computation, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
Expert Security, Technical and Sales Team
- Our experts are some of the best in the industry and have been handpicked from organizations such as Deloitte, E&Y, Israel Defense Forces, Samsung, Oracle, GE, EDS, Kearney, to develop state of the art security products.
Teaming Partnerships
- Our Teaming Partnerships are strategic alliances with large and medium sized businesses possessing complementary, yet distinct, skills and resources with goals of our partners selling ProSecure Squad products along with their services and products to their customers.
- These partnerships increase the rate of customer acquisition while reducing the cost of the same.
Coveted Portfolio of Cybersecurity Products
- Over the last few years, ProSecure Squad has been quietly engineering and patenting revolutionary cybersecurity solutions, designed to give ProSecure Squad a formidable lead over key players, cybercriminals and malware.
- Our core products are focused on making it easy for our customers to protect their data, even if a hacker or malware penetrates their cyber defenses, thus ensuring the hacker cannot see, steal or hold their data for ransom.
- The cyber-security threat landscape is changing rapidly and ProSecure Squad will constantly innovate to meet the demands of the ever evolving threats.
Market Demand
- It has been said that timing is the biggest commonality between revolutionary companies.
- With the past unimpressive trends in data security innovation and implementation and the current increase in hacking, there has been a pent-up demand for data security products.
- Some important statistics also adding to the demand:
- The current increase in cyber-attacks is predicted to cost the world 6 Trillion dollars in 2021.
- There has been a 9,851% increase in cyber-attacks on health care sectors.
- Industries are starting to enforce data level security (Automotive Industry as an example through UNECE WP29 has mandated data level security for vehicles manufacturers and their suppliers)
- ProSecure Squad is well poised to capitalize on this growing market opportunity by providing its state-of-the-art products and services to a welcoming marketplace of medium to large businesses and government agencies.
Market Accessibility
- We define “Market accessibility” as “Ease at which our customers can consume our products to protect their data”. Technical, Procedural, Financial and Political factors are included when considering Ease.
- Market Accessibility and innovation are extremely important for ProSecure Squad to meet our goals of rapid market share growth.
- Our products have been designed and will continue to improve our Market Accessibility.
Goals and Objectives
- Secure a 10 Million USD capital investment, and ensure Hero, Noble, Shield are ready for deployment.
- Capture at least 500,000 active users by June 2022.
- Ensure our products are fully compatible with the UNECE WP29 Automotive Cybersecurity Regulation
- Increase brand recognition by leading our sector, increasing our presence on Linkedin, and executing a strong search engine optimization strategy.
- Ensure that progressing our company culture is of equal importance to business growth.
- Onboard at least 30 active or retired law enforcement professionals, servicemen and servicewomen by December 31, 2022.
- Receive Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Certification.
- Receive ISO/IEC 27701 (ISO 27701) Certification, a privacy extension to ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002, designed to help us protect and control the personal information we handle.
- Receive Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Certification.
Executive Team
Levi Atif,
Founder & CEO
A lifelong entrepreneur and hands-on CEO with strategic foresight, leadership and determination. As a leader and self-sufficient innovator, Levi is comfortable with any role, from the executive boardroom to the development lab, having managed teams of various sizes and functions.
Levi’s innate ability to adapt, improve, build and motivate high-performance teams has served as a growth catalyst to provide outstanding products. Having served and excelled in various capacities in North American law enforcement and recognized with multiple awards. This along with a background in computer systems and research, gives him a keen understanding of the current issues in the Cybersecurity space.
Levi has published multiple research papers and has developed innovative software that has increased efficiencies and security of systems, processes, which has led to multiple technology patents issued and pending in his name. Excellence is not an accident, but a by-product of meticulous planning and execution – True to this Levi is determined to achieve vertical market share growth for ProSecure Squad by creating excellence in People, Process and Product.
In an effort to give back to the community, Levi has been involved with multiple non-profit organizations such as the Ceres, Cradles to Crayons and has also been actively sponsoring education for children in underprivileged communities.
Adib Waqar,
Managing Director, ProTech
Adib is uniquely positioned to drive operations and talent as one of Southeast Asia’s foremost human rights, security, management, and talent development experts. His public sector strategy to transform the potential of human capital has been sought after and recognized internationally for Meritorious Service, leadership, and excellence, by national governments of multiple countries. Adib holds a BSC and an MA degree in Mathematics, Sociology, Criminology and Management. He also holds certification in Human Rights and Management from Durham University.
Adib was handpicked to advise the Prime Minister of Mauritius during a chaotic term in the country’s Corrections System. Subsequently he was then appointed as the Commissioner of Mauritius by a Parliamentary motion, where he oversaw the transformation of the Prison system from its state of turmoil into being recognized as its best government agency. For this achievement, he was bestowed with the Public Excellency Award in leadership.
For over 49 years Adib has been involved with many success stories regarding leadership, management and reformation. He served with distinction as the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons in India and has been awarded the “President of India Correctional Service Medal for Meritorious Services”, “Golden Jubilee Medal of Independence of India”, and “Silver Jubilee Medal of Independence of India”. Adib’s lean management style has been adorned by his superiors, colleagues and team members.
Ali Reza
Head of Sales
Worked in Senior Management Capacity for fortune 500 companies and several successful startups, leading sales and marketing team, Ali holds an MBA from Michigan Technological University.
Over 30 years of experience selling complex IT, and supply chain software solutions, and products and services. Recognized for consistently achieving and exceeding sales and Revenue goals.
Extensive experience in building sales teams, and sales partnership programs that have beat or exceeded revenue goals for the company in both Startup and Growth phase.
Hypergrowth sales experience in enterprise and startup companies such as Xeeva Inc, Revolution Oil, Netlink IT, AT Kearney, GE, EDS Procurement consulting solutions, Market.com and Revolution Oil.
Omar Raja,
Director Security
Omar is a seasoned Cyber Security Leader with 15 years of experience with distinct focus in areas like Cyber Security Strategy, Cyber Forensics and Incident Response, Security Engineering and Implementations, and Cloud Security.
Omar brings in GD consulting and advisory experience in managing, executing and delivering complex and dynamic technology projects in the Cyber Security Space. Most recently, he managed and executed critical engagements like performing security reviews of GD data platforms for one of the leading global BFSI partners; defining and Implementing the connectivity baseline security for one of the leading global Automotive partners, and providing a strategic roadmap around consolidation of the HSM’s [Hardware Security Module] for one of the leading global BFSI firms.
As a GIAC Certified Forensic Examiner, Omar has over 1000+ hours of digital forensic hands-on experience including data imaging, forensic analysis, carving and harvesting. He also designed and deployed the next generation in intrusion prevention, with a revolutionary approach that completely re-thinks the cycle on how to detect and protect from adversaries. He also possesses strong business development, project and program management skills, leadership and interpersonal skills. He has worked with partners across a range of industries, including BFSI, Technology, Telecom and Manufacturing.
Dr. David Khan,
Advisor
Dr. David Khan is a Professor of Information Engineering at MIT and a leading expert in large-scale computation, cybersecurity and cloud computing. He has been named one of the Top-50 Most Influential Persons in Computer Networks in the world.
Dr. Khan has published over 300 papers and 4 books. He served as Director of the MIT AutoID Laboratory from 2006-2010, where the “Internet of Things” was invented. He also served as Co-Director of the seven global AutoID laboratories, which developed the Electronic Product Code Information Systems (EPCIS)—a key software component used by industry and government to drive almost every supply-chain. He was a member of the EPC Global Architectural Review Committee for global standards.
In cyber-physical security, Dr. Khan was PI for impact analysis of large-scale cyberattacks and in collaboration with Lincoln Laboratories, where he designed a Cyber Range for the United States Department of Defense (DOD), which enabled his team to conduct experiments and model the cyber environment in a highly portable fashion.
In machine learning, he is working to address financial fraud for a $70 billion state enterprise. This Accenture-funded project designed a situational awareness framework to exploit different perspectives of the same financial data, and assigns risk scores to entities (payment documents) to improve false positive ratios, and to help identify fraudulent activity in huge and unlabelled financial data sets.
Dr. Khan consults for companies across the world including Accenture, Altria, Kajima, Simizu, SAP, Shell, Exxon, Aramco, Total, IBM, Microsoft. Along with Dr. Tan, he teaches online courses in Digital Transformation, Data Science, Computational Thinking, and Blockchain.
Core Products
Shield
Shield’s Patented technology is an easy to integrate, lightweight software that can be used by application developers to protect data as it is being moved from one device to another, or while it is being stored at endpoints such as Mobiles, Machines, IoT devices, etc.
As the volume of data that is being moved around and stored in the endpoints increases, it becomes critical to protect this data. While infrastructure security technologies like TSL, VPN, firewall, and others protect today’s data pipelines, the data itself remains vulnerable and unprotected.
Hackers have been extremely successful in spying and stealing such data and even use it to take over IoT devices and machines with disastrous consequences. Currently there is no easy and quick way for application developers to secure the application data in transit or when it is stored in the Levices.
Going to market rapidly is critical for the success of a company. Lack of rapidly deployable data protection products has led to the developers, either not implementing these security precautions or choosing to implement basic level security, often with little or no internal and third party security testing.
Hackers and malwares are exploiting these weaknesses which has resulted in an increase in hacking. As an example there has been a 9,851% increase in attempted attacks on health care endpoints.
Just to give a few examples of who can use Shield; (a) Companies with Mobile Application (b) IoT Manufactures (c) Air/Sea & Land Vehicle Manufactures (d) Machine Manufactures (e) Space Manufactures (f) Medical Machine Manufacturers (g) Robotics Manufacturers (h) Sensors Manufacturers (i) Entertainment Industry (ensuring videos or audios cannot be used without the application) etc.
Product Pricing
Our products are sold in a Security as a Service (SaaS) model, where our products will be licensed for use by our customers.
ProSecure Squad plans to onboards companies in the targeted verticals which has mobile application and sensitive data. Through these mobile applications, ProSecure Squad is planning to support 500,000 active monthly users.
If these 500,000 users encrypts data only 5 times daily using their mobile applications, ProSecure Squad is expecting 2,500,000 encryption each day for a daily revenue of $2,500 and a yearly revenue of $ 912,500.
Targeted Verticals
- Mobile Application Developers
- BFSI Mobile Application
- Betting Mobile Application
- Dating Mobile Application
- Defense Mobile Application
- Health Care Mobile Application
- Government Mobile Application
- Social Media Mobile Application
- Telecommunication Application
- Automobile Mobile Application
- Retail and e-commerce Mobile Application
- Entertainment Application
- Education Application
- Machine Manufactures
- IoT Manufactures
Hero
Hero’s Patented technology protects data and keep it safe from both internal and external threats. Despite strong security measures, major corporations, and governments have been increasingly susceptible to having their data stolen or held for ransom. ProSecure Squad protects data in storage by distributing it and hiding it so a hacker cannot see it, seal it or lock it.
Hero does not use access based system to protect data unlike most modern storage system, instead our patented product uses “doublelocks” (ie. Uses a user keys and users themselves) and “ledger-less distribution” which breaks the data into tiny pieces, encrypts and distributes it amongst hidden nodes. Only if the “doublelock” is unlocked can the data pieces can even be located.
With an increasing number of breaches in the cloud, despite strong infrastructure security technologies like TSL, VPN, firewall, and others which protect today’s data pipelines, the data itself remains vulnerable and unprotected.
Hackers have been extremely successful in spying, stealing and holding for ransom the data stored in the cloud with disastrous consequences. Having the data “doublelocked” and “ledger-less distributed” means that no one except the data owner can locate the file let alone try to decrypt it. This reduces the chances of advanced attacks and insider attacks on the customers data.
Even encrypted data stored in the cloud have been compromised multiple times in the recent past and they have also been held for ransom. The problem lies in the fact that even encrypted data can be decrypted with appropriate access, this weakness has been exploited by attackers successfully as evidenced in the recent breaches.
Just to give a few examples of who can use Hero; (a) Companies that store sensitive data and want to protect it (Trade secrets, customer information, secret formulas, financial information etc.) (b) Companies that want to back up sensitive data and have ransomware protection (c) Cloud data storage companies such as Dropbox.
Targeted Verticals
- Banking, Financial, Securities and Insurance Industry (BFSI)
- Health Care
- Governments
- Defense
- Information Technology
- Retail
Product Pricing
Our products are sold in a Security as a Service (SaaS) model, where our products will be licensed for use by our customers. The licensing cost for Shield is as below:
Noble
Over 80% of security breaches are credentials-related, Noble’s authentication is infused with advanced security features, such as multifactor (biometric, puzzle, location, Levice) multipoint, cross platform authentication to validate a user or data. The hassle free Biometrics is privatized, protected and kept in compliance, so you do not have to worry about it. Noble is more than just an user authentication module, our innovative use of this technology extends biometrics to data protection as well. Noble technology can readily integrate into your desktop or mobile device to provide unparalleled, hassle free user and data validation. The Noble is fast, reliable and can keep your bio-metrics protected, private and in compliance.
ProSecure Squad Hero, Shield and Noble will be targeted to the following verticals:
- Information Technology (IT)
- Manufacturing
- Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
- Government & Defense
Let's Get Started!
Peripheral Products
XF2
Modernize and protect your business by exchanging and storing files through the most secure cloud platform for file transfer and storage. Your privacy is paramount, no one except the data owner will ever be able to access the data.
Managed Security Services
Providing state of the art enterprise level cyber-security services for your business, by assessing, managing, mitigating and responding to a multitude of cyber threats, so you can focus on your business.
Recurring Revenue +New Customer Acquisition
We plan to provide our core products to the following verticals:
- Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
- Healthcare
- Energy & Utilities
Operational Model
ProSecure Squad’s operations will consist of a Hybrid Business Model where a portion of team members work remotely from home, and others meet at designated offices. This will be determined by two overriding factors: whether a team member resides near one of our offices, and whether their position is optimized for remote or in-person work. In situations that there is flexibility around this matter we will provide staff with the option to choose whether to work from home or in the office.
Locations
At the present time, ProSecure Squad is located in Massachusetts, Michigan and India. ProSecure Squad has a physical location in India and operates remotely in Michigan and Massachusetts. ProSecure Squad is looking for a space in Massachusetts and have embarked in negotiations. The following will determine the location for ProSecure Squad’s headquarters:
- Strong support by local government
- Lower cost of resources
- Robust Manufacturing, Health and Government Sector presence
Process Quality and Auditing
Security and quality are built into our DNA, ProSecure Squad is an ISO270001 certified company and working towards other certifications (ISO 27701, NIST, HIPPA, CMMC etc). On a regular basis, we audit ourselves and along with external parties to ensure security and quality.
Deloitte has been tasked with ensuring manning and operating a 24X7 Security Operations Center for ProSecure Squad.
Audit
Our External Audit is conducted by:
ProSecure Squad has the greatest businesses on the planet protecting us, and helping us grow. This can be shown by our external auditing process:
- Deloitte: 24/7 security monitoring, annual external audit
- KPMG: annual external audit
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO): process and security audits
Our internal auditing process consists of the following:
- Internal Auditing Team that is reviewed quarterly by management
- Cyber Governance Team that is reviewed every 6 months by management
- Process and Security Audits conducted weekly and quarterly
Process Quality
ProSecure Squad has developed and matured a robust software research, development, QA Testing and Security Testing which includes both internal and external testing partners. The process has been audited by Deloitte and during our ISO audit. Please find the process below:
Customer Journey Process
ProSecure Squad’s customer journey process is as below:
- LEAD STAGE: A lead is a potential buyer.
- PROSPECT & QUALIFYING STAGE:
- Prospect – A lead that is qualified or determined to be ready, willing, and able to buy.
- Qualified Prospect (QP) – A prospect who has been approved by ProSecure Squad for the sales agent.
- DISCOVERY MEETING: Strategic approach to the QP.
- DEMO/SOLUTIONING: Educating the customers on how we can enable their technology and security needs.
- PROPOSAL: Written documents where ProSecure Squad offers product and our service pricing to the potential customer. The proposal should demonstrate how we can serve the needs of the potential customer by showing the key benefits and value that ProSecure Squad can provide.
- NEGOTIATION: This is the strategic discussion between the buyer and the seller that will ideally lead to a deal being closed.
- CLOSE: This is the final agreement on both sides to complete the signing of the deal, and move forward on delivering the products, or services purchased.
Market Overview
The global cybersecurity market was worth $173B USD in 2020, growing to $270B USD by 2026. By 2026, 77% of cybersecurity spending will be for externally managed security services. While money spent on in-house or internal cybersecurity functions is expected to grow 7.2% each year to 2026, global spending on external cybersecurity products and services is projected to increase by 8.4% annually over the same period.
Cyber security and defense against online threats undertake greater significance in today’s digital changing landscape. It has become vital amid organization due to rapidly increasing frauds, cybercrimes, risk, threats, and vulnerabilities. Disruptive and emerging technologies in banking, retail, information technology, defense, and manufacturing sectors have offered new capabilities, facilitated automation, and offered ease of working in the recent past. However, these technologies have also emerged as a potent factor in the development of the global threat landscape of exploits, vulnerabilities, and malware. The emerging threat landscape is observed with an increased number of cybercrime activities in the global digital era.
Market Trends
Expanding Cyber-Attack Surface (Remote Work, IoT, Supply Chain)
According to cybersecurity ventures, the world will store 200 zettabytes of data by 2025. This includes data stored on private and public IT infrastructures, on utility infrastructures, on private and public cloud data centers, on personal computing devices.
The digital transformation was rapidly pushed by Covid-19 and the need to move individuals working in offices to working remotely from their homes. That led to essentially millions of connected offices. It is estimated that nearly half the U.S. labor force is working from home, and that it is greater in many other countries due to lockdowns. Home offices are not as protected as the fortified office sites that have more secure firewalls, routers, and access management run by Its security teams. Remote work has created new opportunities for hackers to exploit vulnerable employee devices and networks. Dorit Dor, vice president of products, Check Point Software elaborated on how the digital transformation. “Businesses globally surprised themselves with the speed of their digital initiatives in 2020: it’s estimated that digital transformation was advanced by up to seven years. But at the same time, threat actors and cyber criminals also changed their tactics so that they could take advantage of these changes, and the pandemic’s disruption, with surges in attacks across all sectors.”
The 2021 Director of National Intelligence (DNI) report estimates that IoT will reach 64 billion objects all monitored in real time. “Looking forward, a hyperconnected world could support up to 1 million devices per square kilometer with next generation cell phone systems (5G), compared with the 60,000 Levices currently possible with current cell networks, with even faster networks on the horizon.” Office of the Director of National Intelligence – Global Trends (dni.gov)
The Internet of Things (IoT) is related to supply chain vulnerabilities. IoT’s exponential connectivity is an ever-expanding mesh of networks and devices. Supply chain cyber-attacks can be perpetrated from nation state adversaries, espionage operators, criminals, or hacktivists. Their goals are to breach contractors, systems, companies, and suppliers via the weakest links in the chain. This is often done through taking advantage of poor security practices of suppliers, embedding compromised (or counterfeit) hardware and software, or from insider threats within networks. Please see my FORBES article: Cybersecurity Threats: The Daunting Challenge of Securing the Internet Of Things Cybersecurity Threats: The Daunting Challenge Of Securing The Internet Of Things (forbes.com)
Protecting such an enormous attack surface is no easy task, especially when there are so many varying types and security standards on the Levices.” One way to address the expanding attack surface is to use an automation tool chest that can now utilize horizon scanning technologies, analytics, audits, incident alert tools, diagnostics, and even self-repairing software. Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies can also provide for more efficient decision making by prioritizing and acting on threats, especially across larger networks with many users and variables.
Ransomware as a Cyber Weapon of Choice
Ransomware has been around for almost two decades and has grown in popularity because it can more easily bring financial rewards to hackers. It is estimated that there are now 124 separate families of ransomware and hackers have become very adept at hiding malicious code. Success for hackers does not always depend on using the newest and most sophisticated malware. It is relatively easy for a hacker to do. In most cases, they rely on the most opportune target of vulnerability, especially with the ease of online attacks.
Last year, ransomware made up nearly a quarter of the incident-response engagements for IBM Security’s X-Force threat intelligence group. Fifty-nine percent of the ransomware incidents involved cybercriminals exfiltrating, before encrypting, the data — so-called “double-extortion” attacks. Ransomware, Phishing Will Remain Primary Risks in 2021 (darkreading.com)
The reason is that ransomware became a weapon of choice for hackers in the COVID-19 induced digital landscape. The transformation of so many companies operating in a mostly digital mode had created more targets for extortion. According to a research study by Deep Instinct, ransomware increased by 435% in 2020 as compared with 2019. And the average ransomware payout has grown to nearly $234,000 per event, according to cybersecurity firm Coveware. Malware increased by 358% in 2020 – Help Net Security
The trend in 2021 is that criminal hacker groups are becoming more sophisticated in their phishing exploits with use of machine learning and more coordinated sharing on the dark web and dark web forums. Hackers are also able to get paid via cryptocurrencies that can be difficult to trace making ransomware more a priority in their exploit tool chests. With the advent of cryptocurrencies in ransomware, it became a profit motive for a lot of the criminal enterprises. They replaced brick and mortar crime with digital crime.
The estimated cost of ransomware was $20 billion in 2020, a rise from $11.5 billion in 2019 and $8 billion in 2018. That trend will continue to grow. 22 Popular Types of Cyber Attacks in 2021 – CyberExperts.com The likely impact for the near-term future is that there will be more ransomware attacks against institutions and corporations who are less cyber secure and cannot afford to have operations impeded such as health care, state & local governments, and educational institutions. Preventing ransomware requires cybersecurity awareness and preparation based on anti-malware programs, secure passwords, updating patches and having secure routers, VPNs, and Wi-Fi. Most important of all, do not fall for the Phish and be sure to back up sensitive data.
Threats Against Critical Infrastructure; ICS, OT/IT Cyber-Threat Convergence
The 2020 World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report listed cyberattacks on critical infrastructure (CI) as a top concern. WEF noted that “attacks on critical infrastructure have become the new normal across sectors such as energy, healthcare, and transportation.” The Global Risks Report 2020 | World Economic Forum (weforum.org) Dragos Inc. “Year in Review 2020” report of industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) cyberthreats, vulnerabilities, assessments and incident response insights determined that threats have increased threefold in the past year. Dragos: ICS security threats grew threefold in 2020 on February 24, 2021 at 12:00 am SearchSecurity (itsecurity.org)
The threats are growing along with the attack surfaces associated with CI. The types of cyber threats include phishing scams, bots, ransomware, and malware and exploiting software holes. The global threat actors are many including terrorists, criminals, hackers, organized crime, malicious individuals, and, in some cases, adversarial nation states. Hackers often seek out unsecured ports and systems on industrial systems connected to the internet. IT/OT/ICS supply chains in CI can be particularly vulnerable as they cross pollinate and offer attackers many points of entry and older Legacy OT systems were not designed to protect against cyber-attacks.
In the U.S., most of the critical infrastructure, including defense, oil and gas, electric power grids, health care, utilities, communications, transportation, education, banking, and finance, is owned by the private sector (about 85 percent) and regulated by the public sector. The energy sector stands out as being particularly vulnerable. This ecosystem of insecurity includes power plants, utilities, nuclear plants, and The Grid. A reason for why the sector has become more vulnerable is that hackers have gained a deeper knowledge of control systems and how they can be attacked and can employ weaponized malware against power stations and other energy related CI assets.
The recent Solar Winds Cyber-attack can also be viewed as a wake-up call for the interactive nature of OT/IT infrastructures. According to Grant Geyer, chief product officer of Claroty the advanced capabilities and backdoors in use by the attack “should put any organization that includes nation-state actors as part of their threat mode on alert, including critical infrastructure, industrial control systems (ICS) and SCADA operators.” SolarWinds: Why OT should worry (controlglobal.com)
Protecting critical Industrial Control Systems (ICS), Operational Technology (OT), and IT systems from cybersecurity threats is a difficult endeavor. They all have unique operational frameworks, access points, and a variety of legacy systems and emerging technologies. The explosion of connected devices comprising the Internet of Things and The Internet of Industrial Things is challenging. The trends of integration of hardware and software combined with growing networked sensors are redefining the surface attack opportunities for hackers across all digital infrastructures.
To help ameliorate threats, critical infrastructure operators should apply a comprehensive risk framework to implement or to address vulnerabilities to OT/IT convergence including “security by design”, defense in depth, and zero trust to counter cyber threats. It is especially important for the public and private sectors to coordinate and apply and enforce industry security protocols, especially related to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). The Internet was not built for security at its inception; it was built for connectivity. Following industry and government protocols derived from lessons learned is essential for protecting vital infrastructure.
Other mitigation efforts can be done by employing new technologies that monitor, alert, and analyze activities in the network. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help provide visibility and predictive analytics. It is also good to have diversification and multiple sourcing for suppliers in the event of a breach. Preparation and redundancy are advantageous in crisis scenarios. But like most issues in cybersecurity, it comes down to people, vigilant processes, and technologies coupled with risk factors constantly being reviewed.
Competitive Advantages
Technical Advantages: Our products are revolutionary, making it near impossible for an attacker to even stand a chance. What truly sets us apart is our proprietary technology which protects our customers’ data. We understand the importance of continuing to be pioneers in the cyber-resiliency space.
These technical advantages offer a strategic advantage not only because of the patents, but also because of the diversity of clients we can onboard.
- Advanced Transit Protection – By breaking the data into tiny pieces and “doublelocking” it with receiver information, we can ensure that no one expect the receiver can see the data. The encryption, changes every time there by evading advanced attacks.
- Endpoint Data Protection – The data which has been protected by Shield cannot be viewed or used by any application other than the actual application that put the data there. Thereby increasing security of the data.
- Multi-Platform – The above protections can be done in mobile, desktop, cloud, machines, IoT Levices etc., thereby giving ProSecure Squad an unique advantage over our competition.
- Low Code – Integrating our products only needs a minimum level of coding, in fact ProSecure Squad is planning to embark on a journey to automate the process of integration of our products into applications. This will further enhance our capability and improve the speed at which we can deploy.
- Ledger less Distributed Data Protection – By distributing the broken pieces of data across hidden storage without a ledger, we can ensure no one except the data owner can access the data.
- Double Lock Protection – We lock the data with the owners keys and the owners information to ensure the distributed data cannot be pulled out without the data owner.
Business Advantages
- Teaming Partnership – Our Teaming Partnerships are strategic alliances with large and medium sized businesses possessing complementary, yet distinct, skills and resources with goals of our partners selling ProSecure Squad products along with their services and products to their customers. This partnership increases the rate of customer acquisition while reducing the cost of the same.
- Accessibility – Our products will become more and more easy to use and also affordable.
Sales & Marketing Plan
ProSecure Squad is planning to sell to customers using both Direct sales and Teaming Partners. Teaming partners will be used as power resellers while direct sales will primarily be done through our sales team and it will be supported by commission only contractors. ProSecure Squad will also work with social media marketing agencies to market directly to customers.
Targeted Verticals
- Information Technology,
- Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI),
- Healthcare,
- Retail,
- Media and Entertainment,
- Manufacturing,
- Health care,
- Education,
- Government & Defense.
Key Channels
Direct Sales
- Outbound emailing
- Sponsored Linkedin Messaging
- Outbound Calling
Teaming Agreements
- Deloitte, KPMG, Wesco, EY
- Will utilize this model with future clients, where they can upsell our products
Social Media Marketing
- Linkedin Content and Engagement
- Facebook Marketing to build awareness
Google Ads
- Targeted pay per click advertising
Financial Plan
Pro Forma Income Statement
Pro Forma Cash Flow Statement
Pro Forma Balance Sheet
