Raytheon Cyber Challenge – Update

April 23, 2020

As the risk of cyberattack grows across the globe, the needto protect Alberta's commercial, municipal and government agency-run networksand digital assets grows with it.

On November 30, 2018, we partnered with Raytheon Canada Limited to challenge Alberta small-and-medium enterprises to come up with high-potential solutions to help counter these sorts of attacks.

The goal of the Challenge is for the successful company to work in collaboration with Raytheon's Calgary-based Cyber Operations Development and Evaluation (CODE) solutions centre. 

Calgary-based ENFOCOM

Alberta Innovates and Raytheon Canadian Limited chose Calgary-based ENFOCOM International Corp. as the company with the most viable solution.

Alberta-based companies are in the perfect position to lead the information technology industry in finding solutions to reduce the impact of cyber threats and promote the security of our information. The funding from Alberta Innovates is vital to the continuity of research and development work conducted by small to mid size companies like ENFOCOM. There is a need to strengthen information security in private and public sectors to reduce the ability of cyber criminals to access sensitive personal information, in order to reduce data breaches and protect the privacy of all stakeholders.  ENFOCOM is pleased to have been chosen by Alberta Innovates to help develop cyber security solutions.

ENFOCOM founder and owner, Herbert Fensury.

Objectives

ENFOCOM will leverage the Raytheon CODE centre's state-of-the-art capabilities, which focus on researching, assessing and validating the security and resilience of a wide range of technologies, infrastructures and systems, to focus on two primary streams:

  1. Researching and developing new ways of testing Information Technology systems to determine how robust an organization's security systems are and how prepared they are for cyberattacks; and
  2. Support research into Information and Operation Technologies where business meets the various levels of government. This could include developing procedures to test and measure security and the ability to detect and monitory systems such as low-power radar - made for unmanned autonomous systems.

Partner contributions

Alberta Innovates is contributing $1.5M and Raytheon Canada Limited is adding $500k to the Challenge. ENFOCOM is expected to contribute at least 25 percent to the total project cost. The potential exists for further collaborations with other locations in US and UK.

We know that data security is important to all Albertans. By investing in the Raytheon Cyber Challenge, Alberta Innovates is demonstrating its leadership in this area. We anticipate that this challenge will change the landscape for detecting, monitoring, and eliminating cyber threats not only for Alberta companies, but for information technology organizations around the world.

David Almond, Alberta Innovates' executive director, Information Technology.

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