Accenture, through Accenture Ventures, has made a strategic investment in SpiderOak, a zero trust cybersecurity and resiliency solutions firm for next generation space systems.
Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SpiderOak’s OrbitSecure product uses no-knowledge encryption and distributed-ledger technology to meet the demands of cyber security in space.
The product suite’s fully decentralized key management system enables full availability and continued operations in space, even within disconnected or highly contested networks. It significantly reduces the attack surface and opportunities for adversaries to jam, disrupt, modify or contest space communications, therein increasing resiliency for multi-vendor, multi-network, mesh proliferated low-Earth orbit networks.
The firm becomes the latest company to benefit from Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight investment and partnership, following many others this year alone, including Stardog and Cervest. The partnership also follows Accenture’s alliance expansion with Google Cloud, to accelerate the use of security-specific generative AI.
Paul Thomas, space innovation lead, technology innovation at Accenture, said: “As the space economy grows, we anticipate that global demand for secure communications will soar. Our work with SpiderOak is the start of an exciting journey to enable secure communications in space and combine SpiderOak’s technology with solutions we are creating at Accenture, such as satellite communications, ground station as-a-service, remote IoT device-to-Satellite data, Space R&D and earth observation data.”
Tom Patterson, quantum and space security lead at Accenture, said: “Cybersecurity cannot be an add on, option, or silo in space. To protect and enable our future, we must give cybersecurity the same priority in space as it has now throughout critical infrastructure on the ground. Working with SpiderOak, we can help our clients put zero trust security into zero gravity and take strategic advantage of these developments to transform their businesses in coming years, and ultimately the futures of their industries.”
Dave Pearah, CEO, SpiderOak said: “As organizations look for solutions to innovate at speed with the rate of growth in space, SpiderOak is well positioned to empower commercial and government customers with our revolutionary cybersecurity platform for space communications.
“We believe our participation in Accenture Project Spotlight, combined with Accenture’s deep experience with leading companies in the aerospace and defense industry and commitment to space innovation and security, will help drive increased awareness and adoption of our secure end-to-end satellite security offerings.”