HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.– Boeing [BA] is in the midst of a two-year effort to grow its cyber security solutions portfolio, according to a key executive.
Boeing Vice President of C3 Solutions Paul Geery told reporters Monday though the company has been providing cyber security solutions for a while, it hasn’t been on the level of its large contractor competitors like Northrop Grumman [NOC] or Lockheed Martin [LMT]. Geery said those defense titans went after information solutions as a “real business strategy” while Boeing tended to stay where there was a real niche and need.
“It does tend to be a little less of a business focus because it’s really not about filling a gap in our numbers. It’s really more about filling a gap in our technology that our customers need for us, as opposed to trying to make more revenues in the bottom line,” Geery said. “That tends to be where we focus, the support where the customer needs it.”
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As government customers have emphasized the increased importance of cyber security solutions over the years, Boeing has moved to take advantage, Geery said.
“Generally, our value proposition tends to be to fill the hard things the government and military need that they can’t get from the product providers,” he said. “That’s what we do well at. So we tend to do that.”
While Boeing has recently started growing its cyber security operations, the company has begun drawing on its experience managing its computer network, which Geery said is one of the largest private networks in the world. He said Boeing, due to its experience managing its network, is actually ahead of some of its government customers when it comes to networking solutions.
Geery said Boeing has an almost two-year-old cyber engagement center in Annapolis Junction, Md., to help emphasize the growing importance of the company’s cyber security solutions. Geery said since Boeing has experience in dealing with modern cyber issues on its own networks like protecting laptops going overseas with sensitive information and dealing with encrypted data, it’s ahead of its pack of competitors.
“For our own needs as well as our customer demanded needs, our private network has had to solve those earlier than a lot of others,” Geery said. “So we can now help in product space and service business and cyber business to take advantage.”
Geery also said Boeing made a couple of acquisitions over the years to acquire software-based technology products in the cyber and intelligence systems realm. Geery said some products acquired include real hardware like cross domain guard solutions or software-based guard solutions to deal with traffic across classified networks.
A Boeing subsidiary called Narus offers advanced cyber analytics solutions through its nSYSTEM and also provides information security through its Narus N10. Narus said on its website it is one of the first companies to combine patented machine learning algorithms, automation and data fusion technologies to provide the incisive intelligence, context and control network operators need to protect against cyber threats and ensure information security.
Boeing also has its Twister Data Framework software, which the company said in a statement helps customers make better decisions by analyzing large amounts of data. The company said it released a Twister upgrade in April that can help customers quickly and reliably access and analyze data in the cloud or elsewhere from anywhere on their network.
“Among all of those things, we’ve focused an outward-facing business unit, outward meaning external customers,” Geery said.