On the offensive against cyber attacks

Industrial cyber security is a rapidly growing $200-million a year global business. Two B.C.-based companies have become important players in this field, thanks in part to the Internet Engineering Lab (IEL), a network test and measurement facility at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Vancouver and one of only five research centres of its kind in North America.

Tofino Security, based on Vancouver Island, is a spinoff of research conducted at IEL which produced an industrial firewall for protecting critical infrastructure, such as hydro and oil and gas installations, from cyber threats. Founded in 2006 and employing a staff of 16, Tofino Security (formerly known as Byres Security) is one of only a handful of companies in the world that manufacture this type of firewall.

Vancouver-based Wurldtech makes the Achilles Satellite™, a leading testing platform for cyber security whose prototype was developed at IEL. Achilles is the flagship product of Wurldtech, which employs 30 people and counts large companies such as Shell and Siemens among its clients.