Josh Ray
Blackwire
9
min read
Sep 25, 2024
Why We Founded Blackwire Labs: Our Mission and Beliefs
As a security community we need to collectively do better. There is massive need to both pull all organizations up from below the "cybersecurity poverty line" and create robust, trustworthy AI cybersecurity solutions. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Dina Aletras from Authority Magazine about Blackwire Labs, and how we're taking a pragmatic and innovative approach to address these challenges. This conversation reinforced my belief in the importance of our mission and the values that drive us forward.
At Blackwire Labs, we don't just work; we live by a set of principles that define our commitment to excellence and innovation. Our mission is simple yet profound: In God we trust, as we strive to build a more secure society for all through innovation and excellence in AI-powered cybersecurity.
The genesis of Blackwire Labs stems from a collective realization among myself and my co-founders, Chris Clark (CTO) and Andrew Maloney (COO), that the cybersecurity industry was at a critical juncture. With the rapid advancement of AI technologies, we saw both immense potential and significant risks. On one hand, AI offers unprecedented capabilities to enhance cybersecurity measures. On the other, it introduces new risk that is hampering broader enterprise adoption.
Chris Clark, our CTO, (and former CISO) brings invaluable expertise in product development and technology strategy. His experience founding Palo Alto Networks' security research team and leading product development for the first cloud-native SIEM at JASK (now part of SumoLogic) has been instrumental in shaping our technological vision. Chris's innovative approach ensures that our AI solutions are not just cutting-edge, but also practical and effective in real-world cybersecurity scenarios.
Our COO, Andrew Maloney, contributes extensive security executive and leadership experience to our team. Having co-founded Query.AI and served as a founding executive at JASK, Andrew's insights into operational excellence and market strategy are crucial. His background in building security operations for high-stakes environments like the Missile Defense Agency and the FBI brings a level of rigor and expertise that is invaluable in our mission to create trustworthy AI solutions for cybersecurity.
We founded Blackwire Labs with a clear vision: to democratize cybersecurity capabilities through trustworthy AI solutions that address critical industry challenges. We believe that by combining trusted and explainable cutting-edge AI technology with deep cybersecurity expertise, we can create solutions that are not only powerful but also transparent and accountable.
Our approach is unique in the industry. We've developed a proprietary trust layer, Trustwire, which ensures AI integrity, data security and accountability. This technology, coupled with our Cybersecurity Community of Excellence (CCOE), allows us to provide AI-driven analyses that are both innovative and reliable. We apply a rigorous source evaluation methodology to ensure our training data is vetted and industry-relevant, setting us apart from generalist AI platforms.
One of the key differentiators of Blackwire Labs is our commitment to transparency and trust. In an era where AI "hallucinations" and unexplainable outputs are common concerns, we've built our entire system around the principle of verifiable, expert-validated content. This approach not only enhances the reliability of our solutions but also builds confidence among our users – a critical factor in the cybersecurity domain.
We're proud to be incubating with Hack Factory, led by technology luminary Matt Devost, who serves as our strategic advisor and my personal mentor. Matt's guidance has been invaluable in navigating the complex landscape of cybersecurity startups and in refining our strategic vision.
As we look to the future, our goal is clear: to revolutionize the cybersecurity industry by making expert-level cybersecurity capabilities accessible to organizations of all sizes. We believe that by democratizing access to advanced AI-driven cybersecurity tools, we can significantly enhance the overall security posture of businesses and institutions across the globe.
At Blackwire Labs, we're not just building a company; we're on a mission to create a more secure digital world. We believe in the power of innovation, the importance of trust, and the critical role of human expertise in the age of AI.
As we continue to grow and evolve, these core beliefs will remain at the heart of everything we do.We invite you to join us on this journey towards a more secure digital future. Together, we can harness the power of trusted AI to tackle the most pressing cybersecurity challenges of our time.
