By Calvin Biesecker
Building off its legacy capabilities combined with its purchase last October of the cyber security firm Oakley Networks, Raytheon [RTN] said yesterday it has launched an Information Security Solutions practice aimed at the federal market and large commercial firms.
“Through Information Security Solutions, we protect federal mission-critical information and infrastructures from attack, intrusion, disruption and compromise,” Michael Keebaugh, president of Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems segment, said in a statement. “We also protect Enterprise 500 customers from information breaches, fraud, theft and sabotage.” The new cyber security business practice is based within Keebaugh’s segment.
Raytheon is launching the new business just as the federal government is preparing to dramatically increase its spending on information technology defenses and as the number of cyber attacks is increasing.
“The threat is driving the market,” Steve Hawkins, who will lead the Information Security Solutions practice, told Defense Daily. “It’s gone from individual hackers to nation states to organized crime to terrorist groups.”
On top of that shift, there has been an increase in the numbers of attacks, Hawkins said. In 2002 there were about 23,000 attempted cyber attacks against United States military installations, whereas last year that figure was 100,000 attempts per second, he added.
Hawkins also said with the federal government preparing to double its annual spending on cyber security, in the neighborhood of $7 billion, more business opportunities are expected to emerge in the next six to 12 months. He said the Department of Homeland Security is coordinating with other federal agencies how various cyber security efforts should proceed.
Near-term the federal government represents the largest business opportunity but Raytheon, through its purchase of Oakley, has traction with the commercial critical infrastructure sector. About 75 percent of Raytheon Oakley Systems business is with the national security sector and the rest largely within Fortune 500 companies such as banks, manufacturers and utilities, Derek Smith, president of the Oakley business unit, told Defense Daily.
“Anybody who has key proprietary intellectual property or customers who have confidential data [and know] that it’s important it not be leaked off or stolen off their networks” is a potential customer, Smith said.
Hawkins said there is interest within the federal government about how to protect commercial critical infrastructure and if there should be any sort of regulatory environment for portions of that infrastructure. However, companies also have an economic interest in protecting themselves, he added.
In 2003 it cost about $10,000 to overcome a typical computer hacker, Hawkins said. Now those attacks are more sophisticated and it can cost close to $400,000 to overcome the damage, he said.
The insider threat poses even potentially greater consequences, Hawkins indicated.
The insider threat, which is where data is compromised from within an organization by an employee or contractor or someone else, is where Raytheon sees a gap in the nation’s cyber defenses. Raytheon Oakley Systems makes computer software that helps enforce acceptable use policies and provides automatic alerts when improper activity is taking place, Smith said.
What sets Raytheon’s new cyber security business practice apart is its focus on providing integrating end-to-end solutions, Hawkins said. Smith also said another differentiator is the focus on the insider threat.