Castle Shield Holdings has been recognized as one of the 20 Best Companies to Watch of 2021 by The Executive Headlines 

 

Castle Shield authoritatively launched on September 16, 2019. We have grown from two people with a vision to provide a holistic approach to Cybersecurity while adopting a Zero Trust Model. Today's, we provide an integrated product family that incorporates a SIEM\Logging platform linked with quantum-resistant encryption and a robust compliance reporting system backed by a lean management unit and over a dozen developers.

 

We’ve had the pleasure to sit down with Castle Shield Holdings CTO, Dr. Milton Mattox, to learn more about the company and services.

 

What factors influenced or motivated you to start this venture?

Most companies execute Cybersecurity functionality (both hardware and software) on a group work basis, exactly like a grandmother made a quilt. In contrast, most providers have a segmented business with verticals. The lack of interoperability among vendors' solutions created a great opportunity for us. Our multi-tenant platform enables IT professionals to turn vertical views into horizontal views, exactly the same as driving a car. Moreover, we can analyze logs (cross-platform) generated by hardware and software and display them in a dashboard format.

What is the most important key to your success? Share the experience. 

The three most important keys to our success consist of our ability to provide the following:

1. Clients with a "one pane of glass" look into all cybersecurity activity transpiring over the business.
2. Quantum-resistant, encryption-based solutions to preserve and save organizations' data for now and the future prospect.
3. A programmatic way to ensure that the organizations are docile with all their regulatory obligations. 

What are the biggest cybersecurity threats right now, according to you? What Measures should be taken by organizations and governments to ensure the protection of consumer data? 

Based on our perspective, the topmost challenges in cybersecurity today are:

1. More and more employees are working remotely.
2. Ransomware, phishing, computer viruses, and malware are escalating precipitously.
3. Business leaders tend to consider that they are somehow immune to cyberattacks. 

These three items make it more manageable for nefarious players to breach organizations' most prominent asset: their data. We understand these tactics very well. Thus, we provide solutions to the organizations to help with certain challenges. There is no obligation for organizations to be ill-prepared; though, business administrators, leaders, and directors need to be proactive in their approach to Cybersecurity.

MFA, password cycling, and quantum-resistant encryption at the file level will save and protect any entity from a ransomware attack. Adopting Zero Trust policies and procedures will also decrease your attack surface.

What are the biggest challenges did you face in the initial years? 

Ultimately, the biggest challenge that we faced in the initial years was to discover talented people with the proper entrepreneurial vision to satisfy the requirements of critical positions.

What do you feel are the reasons behind your company's reputation? 

We incorporate sophisticated leading-edge technologies into practical everyday solutions, and therefore, we believe this is the most prominent reason behind Castle Shield Holdings' reputation.

What's so different about Castle Shield Holdings, and why should one opt for it? 

All organizations are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Whether inanimate or human, no resource should be trusted without verification, authentication, and the proper credentials. Factually, Cyber-attacks are inevitable, and organizations must be fully prepared for today and the quantum era of tomorrow.

Precisely, protecting and saving organizations' data is analogous to protecting the castle in days long past. Moreover, Organizations' castles can be saved and protected by installing a quantum-resistant shield around it, a shield based on the tenets of the Zero Trust framework. Consequently, the company's name, Castle Shield, represents our intention. We help protect companies' castles (i.e., their data) by placing a protective cybersecurity shield around them.

Our products are intuitive, effortless to install and consume. Thus, we do not believe in 30- 120 days implementation plans. 

What is the concept behind your products Quantum-Resistant Encryption, Security Information Event Management (SIEM), Compliance?

To answer this question, we must first understand what encryption is in general. In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding data so that the original data is transformed and essentially hidden. The only way to see the original data is to decrypt (i.e., decode) it so that it is back to its original form.

When data is encrypted, an encryption key is provided so that the data can be decrypted at a later point in time. Protecting the key is of paramount importance.  Today, important data is encrypted with a long encryption key. If the data is moved between two or more network points, the encryption key must be made available to the receiving side and there are many excellent ways to do this securely using today’s computer and software technology. Even today’s fastest computers cannot reverse engineer the encrypted data nor intercept the encryption key during transmission unless there is an inherit flaw in the implementation of the system.
Quantum computers are on the horizon, and they will be thousands, if not millions, of times faster than today’s fastest computers.  The speed of quantum computers will allow nefarious individuals to compromise the encryption key during transmission and possibly even allow the encrypted data itself to be reverse engineered (although the latter is less likely than the former).
 

Quantum-resistant encryption is encryption that will keep data secure and safe even when quantum computers become available.  Why is this important? If quantum computers were to suddenly become available today, all systems from financial to healthcare systems and many more will be vulnerable to attack because quantum computers would make it easier for hackers and nation states to compromise sensitive, confidential, and private data.  Therefore, companies must take practical steps to ensure that their most valued asset–their data–is secured for today and tomorrow alike.
 

In short, quantum-resistant solutions are about preparing for the era of quantum computing by updating existing mathematical-based algorithms and standards so that they are not vulnerable when quantum computers become more commonplace.
In today’s cybersecurity threat-laden environment, all companies are vulnerable to cyberattacks.  No company is immune to the threat of data breaches, ransomware, computer viruses, and other forms of malware attacks. A cyberattack against a company is not a matter of will it happen; it is a matter of when. The threat of cyberattacks will become even more acute during the quantum era. All companies, no matter their size, market, products, and services, must do all that they can to protect themselves against the inevitability of a cyberattack starting right now.

Here’s a bit of context.  Companies’ data is their most important asset. Protecting the company’s data is analogous to protecting the castle in the days of old.  Our goal is to put a protective shield around the company’s castle (i.e., their data) by leveraging the best encryption technology today, including quantum-resistant encryption, for the burgeoning quantum era.

 

We protect the company’s data with best-in-class encryption  (i.e., our Fides quantum-resistant encryption solutions); our Legion SIEM solutions provide a “one pane of glass” view into all security information events occurring across the enterprise; and our Senate solution  provide enterprises with a programmatic and automated way to ensure that they are meeting regulatory and non-regulatory compliance requirements.  In short, we put a quantum-resistant shield around the company’s castle (i.e., their data) under the guise of our Zero Trust Architectural framework. Hence our name, “Castle Shield” which translates to protecting companies’ most valuable asset–their data. 

How important are partnerships to your company?

Partnerships are critically important to Castle Shield. We cover key elements of the Zero Trust model; however, partner companies can help provide products that are not part of our core solutions. For example, partners can focus on strengthening network firewalls; implementing multi-factored authentications; implementing anti-phishing/virus/malware, etc.

How was it working through the pandemic? How challenging was it for you?

As a company, we were not negatively impacted by the pandemic. Most of our team members already work from home and we are geographically dispersed. So, the pandemic “lockdown” was basically business as usual for us. Externally, the pandemic caused more and more people to work from home and thus companies found that this made them more and more vulnerable to cyberattack. To this end, we have been able to help companies be better prepared for the cybersecurity challenges associated with a new, highly remote workforce.

Do you have any new products or services ready to be/getting ready to be launched?

We are planning to launch in late 3Q21 and 4Q21 NIST PQC into our Fides Product portfolio. Typhos, our messaging app, will be enhanced to incorporate audio, video, and conference calls with PQC encryption. 

Where do you see Castle Shield Holdings in the next 3-5 years? 

Our vision for the next 3-5 years is very clear bold. We envision a world where all organizations can competently and successfully keep their data secure from cyberattacks, irrespective of their size. We intend to make this endeavour much more apparent for all organizations.

What are your messages for budding entrepreneurs/young generation?

There has possibly never been a greater opportunity for entrepreneurs than in our modern age. Entrepreneurs have an opportunity to start ventures and enterprises with small to no upfront costs and reach a global market  due to the exponential growth of the internet.  our message to budding entrepreneurs and younger generations to avoid being timid   about pursuing their dreams. Just ensure that you own a solid business plan, surround yourself with outstanding mentors, have an excellent network, and summon up the spirit to "go for it." 

Leadership | Castle Shield Holdings

Jeffrey T. Roney, Founder, Castle Shield, is a Lifelong entrepreneur. He began his first business in 1989, and he has now started a new business, Castle Shield Holdings, LLC. 

Dr. Milton Mattox, CTO, Castle Shield, is a solutions-focused senior executive and technologist with 25+ years of success across various industries such as engineering, IT, healthcare, and telecommunications. His extensive domains of expertise incorporate Cybersecurity for assisting businesses and organizations secure their data, technology development, operations, leadership, SaaS/PaaS, IT solutions, technology roadmaps, and process development.