Critical Infrastructure is Under Assault – Raytheon and Virsec May Have a Solution


“Critical infrastructure – from the electrical grid to transportation – is under assault, and hackers are evading conventional security defenses,” said John DeSimone, vice president of Cybersecurity and Special Missions at Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. “Commercial tools from companies like Virsec can help bridge the gap for our global government and commercial customers and provide effective protection against the growing cyber threat.”

In that light, Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) today announced an alliance with Virsec to bring commercial cybersecurity tools to global government and critical infrastructure customers. Combined with Raytheon’s decades of cybersecurity defense expertise, Virsec’s patented Trusted Execution™ technology protects networks by detecting deviations in software applications caused by cyber intrusions.

Trusted Execution protects against attacks on critical systems that bypass conventional network security tools using advanced hacking techniques and memory exploits.  Commercially available, this technology protects memory and processes in real-time and instantly detects deviations in software applications. This deterministic process blocks attacks within milliseconds, providing precise forensics at every step. It is unique in closely examining memory usage in applications to detect and stop advanced fileless attacks, such as WannaCry, NotPetya, etc. It monitors traffic between applications and process memory. Unlike other solutions that use static analysis to find vulnerable code and then require re-writes, Virsec both detects and protects code as is, in real-time, and with negligible impact on overall performance.

Virsec’s security platform will be included in Raytheon’s global cybersecurity offerings, leveraging Raytheon’s unique strength in the US and international markets; including the Middle East, Europe, The Americas and Asia.  About 30% of Raytheon corporate revenues come from international, and in 2016 Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information and Services business unit, which specializes in advanced cybersecurity solutions, recorded $6.19 billion in sales.

“It’s time to change the equation for security and deliver better protection for our most critical infrastructure,” said Atiq Raza, CEO of Virsec. “Our philosophy is simple – rather than eternally chasing elusive threats, we need to take the guess-work out of cybersecurity and stop attacks, at the application level, in real-time.”