CryptoniteNXT Moving Target Cyber Defense (MTD) Takes the Battle Back to the Attackers

Cryptonite, a leader in moving target cyber defense, launched today from stealth mode with the release of the company’s flagship network security solution, CryptoniteNXT. CryptoniteNXT enables any network to actively shield itself from cyber attacks by preventing all attacker reconnaissance and lateral movement. By challenging traditional trust assumptions, CryptoniteNXT proactively contains an attack well before it can be detected and removed by traditional means.

“CryptoniteNXT was built with defensive security in mind that can be applied to critical vulnerability use cases and protect against any level of adversary,” said Justin Yackoski, CTO, Cryptonite. “The network has become an easily infiltrated space that cannot be completely locked down. With CryptoniteNXT, we take away the attackers’ ability to ‘see’ within the network, making network attacks or data exfiltration attempts significantly more difficult and expensive for attackers.”

CryptoniteNXT is delivered as a network appliance that supplements existing network infrastructure to improve both wired and wireless security. A unique combination of technologies effectively alters network behavior in real time with no human intervention. CryptoniteNXT blocks malicious activities while at the same time preserving performance and usability for legitimate purposes. Network protection with CryptoniteNXT is therefore always on, checking that every packet is not exceeding necessary business functions, and limiting the attacker’s ability to progress along the Cyber Kill Chain.

Cryptonite CEO, Mike Simon, told Pipeline "Legacy systems in telcos have both embedded systems and/or older unsupported operating systems. Until now, these systems were thought to be extremely vulnerable and not able to be protected by state of the art cyber tools. Cryptonite's Moving Target Cyber Defense (MTD) makes these systems invisible to cyberattackers and malicious insiders that are seeking to compromise telco networks. By stopping the first step in the Cyber Kill Chain, CryptoniteNXT, Cryptonite's defensive security platform, stops attacks before they can start."

Research and development into Cryptonite’s ground breaking MTD technology started with funding from DoD and DHS. Spun out of a Maryland defense contractor, Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI), Cryptonite is led by Michael Simon, serial technology entrepreneur and President & CEO, and Justin Yackoski, former lead researcher at IAI and CTO. With a heritage in the defense space and a DC-bred team, Cryptonite is backed by cybersecurity investors, including Ron Gula, founder of Tenable, David Walker, founder of Pangia Technologies, Al Nardslico, founder of SMS, Abtin Buergari, founder of Modus eDiscovery, Don Rogers, co-founder of Shulman Rogers, and Dr. Leonard Haynes, co-founder of IAI.

“Cryptonite uniquely prevents adversaries from exfiltrating actionable information from networks. The other key capability is their fine-grained micro-segmentation which stops east-west traffic that has enabled the spread of ransomware,” said Ron Gula, principal at Gula Tech Adventures.