Category: Cybersecurity Companies 2022 Profiles

In 1927, Navy veteran Eugene H. Rietzke founded Capitol Technology University in Washington, D.C., as the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute. Initially, the institute served to educate radio and electronics technicians, and later with growing popularity, it started offering other areas of study related to engineering and technology. As the school evolved, it underwent several name and location changes before moving to Laurel, MD. Campus in 1980 and settling on the current name Capitol Technology University in 2014. Thanks to its strong leadership, Capitol Tech has grown into an MHEC-accredited, bustling academic community offering graduate and undergraduate degrees.

Led by its President, Dr. Bradford L. Sims, Capitol Technology University is a private, independent university offering 26 Bachelor’s, 21 Master’s, and 32 Doctoral degree options in a variety of STEM-based subject areas. Every program at the university focuses on helping students develop practical and modern skills that will make them valuable assets for their employers. Its most popular study program is its acclaimed Cyber and Information Security major, which has received several honors, including the 2020 S.C. Media Award for Best Cybersecurity Higher Education Program. It also has expertly designed Construction Management & Critical Infrastructure Programs, which help students prepare for lucrative careers in the industry. The career-focused university provides two unique promises for eligible students–the Chargers Assistance Program (CAP), which promises to assist students with paying off loans if their post-graduation income is under $50,000, and the Capitol Commitment, which offers to fund up to 36 additional academic credits for students who do not find employment within 90 days of graduation.

A Technology-Obsessed Leader

Dr. Bradford L. Sims joined Capitol Technology University in 2017 as its eighth president. An educator, administrator, and construction project manager, Dr. Sims has a massive experience in academia and in numerous career industries.

Dr. Sims was introduced to computer programming at a very young age when he received a Commodore 64 as a birthday gift. Soon after completing his Bachelor’s degree in Building Construction Management from Purdue University, he spent significant time in project management for industrial construction companies. His technical knowledge provided him with the opportunity to not only oversee projects but to have involvement in managing the computer systems at each company he served. Later, he returned to the University of Florida to pursue his Master of Science in Building Construction and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Purdue. These studies eventually led Dr. Sims to his first position in the higher education industry as an assistant professor at the University of Florida. Later, he worked in various positions in the higher education industry before joining Capitol.

Setting High Standards

Capitol Technology University sets itself apart by helping students find their careers immediately after graduation. The university has partnerships with major government agencies like the NSA, allowing its students to build career connections quickly. It hires faculty members who not only have brilliant minds and a passion for teaching, but have worked in the industry and can show students what their future employers could look for. Additionally, Capitol’s programs are developed on the base of the current STEM career industry, and each subject area was designed to meet the specific demands of the job market.

Tackling the Pandemic

Although Covid-19 made it very difficult for many colleges and universities to operate in person, leading to a decline in enrollment, Capitol was already well-positioned to tackle the pandemic due to its existing robust online learning infrastructure.

“While we missed the lively on-campus presence of our undergraduate students during 2020, we successfully continued operations virtually and maintained the same level of quality and excellence that our community expects.”- Dr. Sims said.

Helping Students Build Great Careers

Since its foundation in 1927, Capitol’s primary mission has been to provide its students with great careers. What has changed is the university’s commitment to offering its education at advanced degree levels and the delivery methods of several of its degrees. During the late 1990s, Capitol Tech was one of the leaders in converting its Master’s degrees to online delivery, which helped it to reach a much wider audience of full-time working students. Later it added an online doctoral degree to serve working students who wanted to continue their education. Initially, the online experience was a synchronous 16-week semester. However, to meet the current student needs, synchronous delivery has migrated to asynchronous delivery with the addition of 8-week courses.

Preparing for the Future

As a career-focused university, Capitol will continue to look at the future needs of the industries it serves and add new degree programs and certifications to fill that market demand. Capitol Tech works closely and has many partnerships with associations, companies, government agencies, and government subcontractors and uses many full-time industry employees to instruct in classes both on campus and online, ensuring that the university stays active in current and future industry needs across the United States and internationally.

Meet Frank von Seth, the CEO of cyan AG, a Europe-based, internationally active provider of seamless cybersecurity solutions (cyan Security) and lightweight BSS/OSS platform services (i-new). Born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, Frank started his professional career as an Insurance and Risk Consultant with several companies on three continents and five different countries. Before joining cyan, Frank served Aon in Switzerland for over ten years. He started his current position as the CEO of cyan AG and is now leading the company into its future while working on a safer tomorrow for everyone by safeguarding users on their daily digital and connected journey.

cyan Security started its journey as a B2B provider of network security solutions like secure web gateways. Later in the 2010s, the company underwent a business model change as it realized that to protect a large number of users, a B2B2C model, leveraging the far reach of the telcos was necessary. So, the organization expanded its threat intelligence platform, built products specifically for this sector, and quickly signed its first contract with T-Mobile in Austria. Later, in 2018, the company went public in Frankfurt and inked a major contract with Orange Group, a leading telco. Soon many customers followed suit, and cyan Security partnered with T-Mobile in Poland and dtac in Thailand. Last year, with Frank taking the helm at the company, cyan started to focus more on driving customer success. It does this by partnering with its direct customers to provide security and relevant features to the end customer and guides these customers to fully leverage the potential of its solutions in the market.

Safeguarding Lives of Millions

In its cybersecurity segment, cyan Security is currently offering four primary solutions named OnNet Security, OnDevice Security, Child Protection, and CleanPipe DNS. The organization brings all of its products under a B2B2C white label approach to the market, providing clients the opportunity to enhance their product portfolio, protect their subscriber base, and boost their brand while generating additional revenues with its value-added products.

Frank states, “All our solutions have in common that they are built utilizing the DNS, an integral part of the modern internet, and on our threat intelligence platform which screens the internet 24/4 leveraging 200 virtual datacenters worldwide. This results in over 1 trillion data requests processed every month.”

cyan Security uses AI and ML in its 25 proven analysis methods, thereby minimizing the time that users are vulnerable. Its database of more than 300 million entries gets updated continuously, and because cyan Security doesn’t need to push updates to millions of end users, those updates become available almost instantly on the network independent of the device a customer is using – a genuinely unified experience.

Frank believes, from the clients’ perspective, cyan Security’s network-based approach has even more advantages. He says, “The customer does not need to install or update anything – the safety is provided directly by their telecom company. This is a huge advantage as many customers struggle to select and install an appropriate cybersecurity solution. Our solution, hence, has a very efficient and smooth customer journey compared to other solutions where you need to find an app, download, install, pay with a credit card, receive and enter a license key, configure the app on every device, and so on.”

The Catalyst

The pandemic acted as a catalyst for the increased focus on cybersecurity. With the sudden shift to a work-from-home model, companies and individuals realized that vulnerabilities could drastically affect professional and personal lives. Although available, the cybersecurity infrastructure was already on limits before the sudden shift to daily digital life, leaving many doors open to malicious actors. The fact that security needs to be the number one priority in our digital world has become more apparent during the pandemic. There are numerous instances of people operating and managing everything, starting from professional to personal matters in their life, without having the necessary protection in place.

Picture of the Future

For leaders in the connected world, cybersecurity has become a strategic priority. cyan Security provides a cybersecurity platform that is capable to cater to the billions of unprotected internet users worldwide. The solutions built upon this platform are highly scalable and delivered by a team of professionals who carefully analyze the needs of individual markets and customers to best facilitate their needs.

Along with high technological standards, cyan Security’s research and development center helps the firm to constantly be aware of the latest trends. A significant advantage for cyan Security’s partners is that they get a B2B2C white label solution. With this innovative approach, cyan enabled its clients to support and differentiate their brand with highly relevant value-added services by using one of its products under their name.

As an organization, cyan Security aspires to become a guiding star in the world of cybersecurity. Frank says, “We want to be the “seatbelt” of the digital journey of all users and devices. Of course, this is an ambitious goal, but as previously stated, I took on a challenge and am fully committed to this challenge. How do we plan to achieve this? One aspect for example is that we work on expanding our global footprint in the B2B2C business; we already work with multiple partners over different continents and protect hundreds of thousands of end users.”

Also, expanding in untapped markets will be one of the next steps for the organization. Furthermore, it also wants to get closer to end users, having a direct connection. In order to do that, cyan Security is planning to expand its cybersafety offerings into the B2C segment and directly provide its service to individuals.