Startup
Spotkick this week is introducing its first product, cybersecurity software. Located at an incubator on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus, the cybersecurity service provider is releasing three versions of the software it uses for its own clients. All the software, so far unnamed, is found on Spotkick's website and one of the versions is free.
CEO and founder Eric Fiterman says the free version is staying on the website for the foreseeable future. There is a fee for the other two versions, standard and premium.
“Not all businesses can afford services like ours and other providers,” he says. “We want to make it accessible to them.”
All three versions are designed to take inventory of a company’s computer system and provide a report of vulnerabilities, although at different levels of complexities. The software is web-based, with users filling out a profile online. Reports are delivered online as well.
“Different companies have different levels of exposure based on factors like the age of their computer system,” Fiterman says. “We run inventories of different capabilities depending on what clients want. We look for things that are hidden or hard to find.”
Fiterman calls the free version a “walk-through” that gives users an idea of their exposure to cyber risks like getting hacked or having their data compromised.
The standard version, a flat fee whose price is likely to be under $49, has detailed information about where the user’s system is most vulnerable and to what kinds of cyber-risks. The premium version, likely under $79, not only identifies the risks but provides options on how to protect the system and even counter-attack.
Fiterman, a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent whose specialty was cyber crimes, founded Spotkick in 2011. It was the first startup accepted into the then-newly formed incubator known as the
Northrop Grumman Cync Program. The program is the result of a partnership between UMBC and Northrop Grumman Corp.
Fiterman says Spotkick will continue to market its cybersecurity services to clients, among them the U.S. Department of Defense, Northrop Grumman and other Baltimore area startups.
“We have service contracts and are generating revenue,” he says, although he declined to give a figure.
The privately financed startup has a staff of five. Fiterman will hire at least two more developers this year.
Source: Eric Fiterman, Spotkick
Writer: Barbara Pash