Superpowered cybersecurity

One of them reads data faster than any cybersecurity analyst alive. The other will take a punch from even the nastiest hackers on the net.

Those are the key features of two technologies Raytheon is now offering to companies and government agencies whose cyber operations it manages. Through partnerships with the tech firms Cybraics and Authentic8, Raytheon is poised to improve cybersecurity for electoral systems, financial institutions, healthcare companies and other critical infrastructure.

"With global critical infrastructure systems under constant attack, organizations need flexible access to the most advanced technology possible to ensure resiliency," said John DeSimone, vice president of Cybersecurity and Special Missions at Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. "Partnerships with companies like Cybraics and Authentic8 help combat these cyber threats by bringing innovative tools to our mission partners through a subscription model that delivers security faster and at a lower total cost."

The partnerships are the latest in a series of similar deals, all designed to bring Raytheon's government and military customers much-needed technology faster than traditional acquisition would typically allow.

The Cybraics partnership focuses on the use of artificial intelligence and analytics to identify signs of a cyberattack. Cyberaics' product, called nLighten, saves human analysts the slow, tedious work of reviewing thousands of individual security alerts. Instead, it learns networks and gives analysts a list of threats and vulnerabilities, ranked from most to least severe.

"We are extremely excited about the partnership with Raytheon to use nLighten as a core platform to deliver artificial intelligence and Security as a Service to the Raytheon Security Operations Center, customer base and prospective new customers," said Marvin Wheeler, Cybraics' co-founder and CEO.

Raytheon's partnership with Authentic8 centers on a secure cloud browser that acts as an intermediary between the user and the Internet. The browser, called Silo, executes web code in a secure, isolated environment – essentially giving users what they need from the Web without exposing them to incoming attacks.

"Any cyber-related mission requires internet access – which means increased risk to the organization and more complicated management overhead," said Scott Petry, CEO and co-founder of Authentic8. "With Silo, customers never expose their environment to the web, rather, our disposable, cloud-based infrastructure takes the hit."