Castle Shield Provides Enterprise Security Built From the Ground Up For Today and Tomorrow

In today’s cybersecurity threat-laden environment, all companies are vulnerable to cyberattacks. No company is immune to the threat of data breaches, ransomware, computer viruses, and other forms of malware attacks. A cyberattack against a company is no more a matter of will it happen? It is a matter of when? The threat of cyberattacks will become even more acute during the quantum era as we move forward. All companies, no matter their size, market, products, and services, must do all that they can to protect themselves against the inevitability of a cyberattack starting right now.

Protecting the company’s data is analogous to protecting the castle in the days of old. And Virginia-headquartered Castle Shield is putting a protective shield around a company’s castle (i.e., their data) by leveraging the best encryption technology today, including quantum-resistant encryption, for the burgeoning quantum era.

But to understand quantum-resistant encryption, we must first understand what encryption is in general. In cryptography, encryption encodes data so that the original data is transformed and essentially hidden. The only way to see the original data is to decrypt (i.e., decode) it so that it is back to its original form. When data is encrypted, an encryption key is provided so that the data can be decrypted at a later point in time. Protecting the key is of paramount importance. Today, important data is encrypted with a long encryption key. If the data is moved between two or more network points, the encryption key must be made available to the receiving side and there are many excellent ways to do this securely using today’s computer and software technology. Even the fastest computers today cannot reverse engineer the encrypted data nor intercept the encryption key during transmission unless there is an inherent flaw in the implementation of the system.

Quantum computers are on the horizon, and they will be thousands, if not millions, of times faster than today’s fastest computers. The speed of quantum computers will allow nefarious individuals to compromise the encryption key during transmission and possibly even allow the encrypted data itself to be reverse engineered (although the latter is less likely than the former).

Hence, quantum-resistant encryption will keep data secure and safe even when quantum computers become available. Why is this important? If quantum computers were to suddenly become available today, all systems from financial to healthcare systems could be vulnerable to attack because quantum computers would make it easier for hackers and nation-states to compromise sensitive, confidential, and private data. Therefore, companies must take practical steps to ensure that their most valued asset – their data – is secured for today and tomorrow.

Castle Shield is pioneering quantum-resistant encryption. The cybersecurity firm protects data with best-in-class encryption (i.e., its Fides quantum-resistant encryption solutions); its Legion SIEM solutions provide a “one pane of glass” view into all security information events occurring across the enterprise, and its Senate solution provides enterprises with a programmatic and automated way to ensure that they are meeting regulatory and non-regulatory compliance requirements. In short, Castle Shield puts a quantum-resistant shield around the company’s data under the guise of their Zero Trust Architectural framework.

We recently interviewed Dr. Milton Mattox, Chief Technology Officer of Castle Shield, to know more about the company’s work. Read on for the excerpts from the interview.

Q. What was your motivation behind starting the company?

Our motivation is simple. Castle Shield provides enterprise security built from the ground up for today and tomorrow. Enterprise security is more than protecting single elements in an enterprise. We believe strongly that the enterprise must be built upon a “never trust, always verify” foundation commonly called Zero Trust. At the center of our solutions, is our Quantum Resistant Architecture (QRA). Organizations implementing our solutions will be able to apply industry-best practices to improve their cyber awareness and resiliency. Our approach to cybersecurity begins with understanding the complex relationship between compliance and cybersecurity implementation across the entire enterprise.
We started Castle Shield to provide companies with a complete range of enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions to help protect them against all internal and external cyber threats. Our proprietary quantum-resistant technologies stand strong as the last line of defense for a company’s data in the quantum computing era threat landscape.

Q. Could you tell us about your SIEM product?

Our patented SIEM (security information event management) solutions have been proven to scale for billions of security events from thousands of customers, in real-world security environments. Castle Shield’s SIEM solution utilizes a leading-edge log collection engine with robust correlation and analysis as well as a multi-tenant SIEM Platform. Multi-tenancy allows our customers to employ one Security Analyst per 100 customers. Our solution begins the process of a single pane of glass analysis required to monitor and manage numerous environments to achieve cybersecurity awareness. Our solution is flexible and can be installed in the provider’s local (cloud) environment allowing complete control while adhering to chain of custody concerns to meet established forensic investigation standards. The customer benefits from a scalable multi-tenant platform, delivering security products and remediation services in a cost-effective manner.

“Our proprietary quantum-resistant technologies stand strong as the last line of defense for a company’s data in the quantum computing era threat landscape.”

Q. What are the current challenges of being in the cybersecurity?

The top challenges in cybersecurity today are: a) more and more employees are working from home, b) ransomware, phishing, computer viruses, and malware are rising precipitously, and c) company leaders tend to believe that they are somehow immune to cyberattacks. These 3 things are making it easier for nefarious actors to breach companies’ most prized asset – their data. We have solutions to help with these challenges. There is no need for companies to be ill-prepared; however, company leaders must be proactive in their approach to cybersecurity.

Q. How important are partnerships to your company?

Partnerships are critically important to Castle Shield. We cover key elements of the Zero Trust model; however, partner companies can help provide products that are not part of our core solutions. For example, partners can focus on strengthening network firewalls; implementing multi-factored authentications; implementing anti-phishing/virus/malware, etc.

Q. How was it working through the pandemic? How challenging was it for you?

As a company, we were not negatively impacted by the pandemic. Most of our team members already work from home and we are geographically dispersed. So, the pandemic “lockdown” was basically business as usual for us. Externally, the pandemic caused more and more people to work from home and thus companies found that this made them more and more vulnerable to cyberattack. To this end, we have been able to help companies be better prepared for the cybersecurity challenges associated with a new, highly remote workforce.

Q. What is the company’s vision and ambition for the road ahead?

Our vision is bold. We envision a world where all companies, no matter their size, can adequately and successfully keep their data safe from cyberattacks. We aim to make this effort much easier for all companies.

The Leader Upfront

Dr. Milton Mattox, Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Mattox is a technologist, corporate leader, and author who has worked with some of the world’s most acclaimed companies. An authority in delivering highly complex technology products and solutions, he continues to practice the leadership techniques and methodologies outlined in his books and articles to successfully increase return on investment for companies, organizations, and executives. Milton is an experienced, senior technology executive with an extensive background in software engineering, application development, IT infrastructure and offshore Research and Development (R&D) team management. This includes a proven track record of transforming and accelerating technology development and delivery in alignment with the goals of the business worldwide.

“We started Castle Shield to provide companies with a complete range of enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions to help protect them against all internal and external cyber threats.”