Tom Ilube

Crossword Cybersecurity Plc, the technology commercialisation company focused solely on cyber security and risk, has significantly strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of a Group Sales Director and a new Chair of its consulting subsidiary to assist in driving growth during 2020. Sean Arrowsmith joins as Crossword’s first Group Sales Director in January, responsible for both product and consulting sales activity. Sean will lead and grow the sales team. He inherits a strong pipeline for the Rizikon Assurance risk product, which stands in excess of £3m over 100 companies in a wide range of sectors. Revenue target achievement Sean comes with 20 years of sales experience in cyber/information security and technology. He was previously Group Sales Director at IRM Ltd, the World Class Centre in Cyber Security of Altran Technologies SA, the global innovation and engineering consulting firm, where he was accountable for revenue target achievement across all of IRM’s business streams including consulting, software and training. Dr Robert Coles has taken on the role as Non-Executive Chair of Crossword Consulting Ltd In addition, Dr Robert Coles has taken on the role as Non-Executive Chair of Crossword Consulting Ltd, the Group’s consulting subsidiary. Dr Coles knows Crossword well through his current role as Chair of its Advisory Board. He has extensive experience in building large scale consulting practices having been Lead Partner in KPMG’s Information Security Services for EMEA. He subsequently spent many years as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in large corporates including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), National Grid and Merrill Lynch. Developing Relationships With University Partners He is an Honorary Professor at University College London (UCL) and Visiting Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. Jake Holloway, formerly Business Development Director, is now devoting himself full time to the role of Chief Product Officer, bringing a sharper focus to building out Crossword’s product portfolio (which currently comprises Rizikon Assurance and Nixer CyberML) and developing relationships with university partners. Rob Johnson leaves Crossword after two successful years as Chief Operating Officer to take up new challenges. The COO role will not be replaced. Tom Ilube, CEO of Crossword Cybersecurity Plc said “With Sean and Robert on board, alongside our current Executive team, we have the right people in place to scale up in 2020. Sean is a 20-year tech and cyber sales veteran with a proven track record. Robert will bring his consulting experience, as Lead Partner at KPMG, to our consulting business as Chair. I am delighted to have two such powerful leaders join our team.”

Crossword Cybersecurity Plc, the technology commercialisation company focused solely on cyber security and risk, announces the launch of Nixer CyberML, a new family of machine-learning based security and anti-fraud software products, that help organisations easily and quickly build these capabilities into applications. Nixer CyberML is a new tool for businesses that want to solve advanced security and cybercrime problems, such as detecting and dealing with compromised accounts, fraud and in-application denial of service attacks. Machine learning based detection Many of today’s security and fraud problems occur within applications and are difficult Many of today’s security and fraud problems occur within applications and are difficult, if not impossible, to detect externally to the applications. For example, if a fraudster has obtained a user’s login details via a credential attack, their access to the site while logging in can appear normal – but once inside the site, can start to behave maliciously. Nixer CyberML allows development teams to rapidly add machine learning based detection to online applications (online banking, ecommerce systems, ticket sites, critical business apps, etc.) that can learn to accurately distinguish between good and bad user behaviour. This initial release designed for developers, includes the Nixer CyberML architecture, code libraries for Spring framework based applications, and a local Nixer CyberML Engine designed to help with credential protection functionality. Processing anonymous application event data The Nixer CyberML Engine, stores and processes anonymous application event data, and contains the machine learning algorithms which determine whether events are normal or potentially malicious. Future versions of Nixer CyberML will give developers access to cloud-based machine learning algorithms. The benefits of using Nixer CyberML include: Detecting, mitigating and preventing fraud and other user-based attacks that Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) tools cannot mitigate, by using advanced machine-learning integrated into business applications Quick and reliable deployment by using existing code and architecture, and, where needed, working with a specialist partner familiar with machine-learning, cyber security and cyber-crime prevention to provide support with data science and algorithm creation. Implementing effective solutions Jake Holloway, Crossword’s Chief Product Officer, said, “Machine Learning based approaches to cybersecurity are not uncommon in very advanced applications, but most development teams are maxed out and do not have the right data science skills and tools to implement effective solutions quickly.” “This is why Nixer CyberML has been designed – it allows organisations to build in security and anti-fraud capabilities easily and quickly, without needing to employ machine learning specialists.” Valuable context for algorithms and analytics Nixer CyberML helps to merge the gap between security analytics and software development" Tom Ilube, Crossword CEO also said, “The first product to come out of the Nixer CyberML family of products is part of Crossword’s CyberAI initiative. It will be followed up with further services to help Enterprises, SaaS Vendors and developers accelerate projects that add intelligence to their applications.” “As the UK’s leading cyber security commercialisation company we work with universities regularly, as we have with Imperial College London on Nixer CyberML’s machine learning algorithm design and selection.” Jan Broniowski, Nixer CyberML Architect said, “By putting security closer to the application layer, we create rich, valuable context for algorithms and analytics. We offer Nixer CyberML as Java libraries through GitHub - a design decision that provides control, explainability and configurability to developers. Nixer CyberML helps to merge the gap between security analytics and software development.”

Crossword Cybersecurity Plc, globally renowned technology commercialisation and solutions firm focused solely on cyber security and risk, has announced that it will be collaborating with global cyber security expert, NCC Group plc, on third-party cyber security and risk assurance. Cyber security audit service NCC Group gives customers the choice of Crossword’s Rizikon portal as a basis for the questionnaire and risk reporting NCC Group will offer customers the choice of using Crossword’s Rizikon portal as a basis for the questionnaire and risk reporting, as part of its third-party cyber security audit service. The online security platform will make it easy for customers and their third-party suppliers to complete questions and submit evidence to help assess risk and highlight any potential vulnerability in the supply chain. Additionally, NCC Group customers looking to use the portal to take control of all third-party risks will be able to buy it via NCC Group.  NCC Group – Crossword Cybersecurity partnership Tom Ilube, CEO of Crossword Cybersecurity PLC said, "We're delighted that NCC Group, global cyber security specialist has agreed to partner with Crossword and supply Rizikon Assurance to its customers. We're very confident that NCC Group's customers will benefit from the improved assurance and cyber-risk visibility that Rizikon Assurance provides." Adam Palser, CEO, NCC Group said, “Third party suppliers can be an attractive way for cyber criminals to gain access to data and networks that would otherwise be beyond their reach. Our audit services are designed to help customers make the right decisions to ensure the ongoing security and availability of business critical information.” Rizikon Assurance security platform Rizikon Assurance by Crossword Cybersecurity is a SaaS (Software as a Service) - based third party security assurance and risk management platform that allows users to take control of third-party risk and manage it efficiently.

Crossword Cybersecurity plc, the cyber security technology commercialisation company, releases insights from its global review of academic cyber security research. The new database looked at nearly 1,200 current and past research projects from academic institutions in the United Kingdom, United States, Europe, Australia, and Africa. It reaffirmed the value of the cyber security research market, with reported funding of EU projects at over €1 billion. The database identified several global trends by comparing the periods January 2008 to June 2013 with July 2013 to December 2018. Securing critical infrastructure The United States appears to be the most active in CPS research, with a focus on securing critical infrastructure Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) – Over 100 projects were found in this area alone, a significant figure. The United States appears to be the most active in CPS research, with a focus on securing critical infrastructure. Privacy - Projects related to privacy have increased by 183% in recent years. Internet of Things (IoT) – Projects with an IoT element have increased by 123% lately, with around 14% of current projects having this characteristic. Cryptography – With the promise of quantum computing on the horizon, there has been an influx of new projects that apply the technology to the future of cryptography, with a 227% increase in this area of research (albeit this was from a low base). Greater focus Significant differences can also be seen between regions. For instance, the EU appears distinctly focused on minimising Small & Medium Enterprises’ (SME) exposure to cyber security risk. Conversely, when compared with other regions, the US has a greater focus on the human component of cyber security. Other US top project funding areas include cyber physical systems (as applied to smart cities and power grids), securing the cloud, cybercrime, and the privacy of big data sets (as applied to the scientific research community). In the UK, the research verticals are critical infrastructure and securing the health sector (with 11 current projects each). Big data projects Current funding across UK projects exceeds £70m, with quantum and IoT-related projects both more than doubling over five years. There are currently nine new UK projects with a focus on cyber physical systems. There are currently 52 global projects with a cryptographic focus, and at least 39 current live EU projects featuring a cryptographic element The four UK projects with the greatest funding are in the fields of safe and trustworthy robotics, big data security, cybercrime in the cloud and quantum technology for secure communications. The most notable UK decline was in big data projects, which have dropped by 85%. There are currently 52 global projects with a cryptographic focus, and at least 39 current live EU projects featuring a cryptographic element. Evolving cyber security In the UK, this area has been consistently strong over the last ten years, with 18 projects starting between 2008 and mid 2013, and 19 projects from mid 2013 to now. Tom Ilube, CEO at Crossword Cybersecurity plc said of the analysis, “The need to protect critical infrastructure has never been stronger as technology becomes more deeply embedded in every aspect of our daily lives. However, one apparent omission is research solely focused on the application of AI techniques to complex cyber security problems. We hope to see more of that in the future, as the industry works to stay ahead of the constantly evolving cyber security landscape.”