Upstart Ontario firm takes worldwide war to hackers
Vito Pilieci
Province
christopher Davis, of Defence intelligence, helped shut down a massive computer virus operation. –CNS
An announcement earlier this week that the Mariposa botnet — a network of computers infected with a virus that can be controlled remotely without owners’ knowledge — had been dismantled has focused a bright spotlight on a small Ontario company with ambitious plans.
Defence Intelligence Inc., a seven-person firm based in Ottawa, believes the demise of Mariposa is a perfect example of what its products can accomplish.
“We would probably be shutting down things like Mariposa once a month instead of once a year,” said chief executive officer Chris Davis, complaining about the shortage of venture capital available for expansion because of the unsteady state of the economy.
He plans to use his company’s success to attract more financing, hire more staff — and bring more hackers around the world to their knees.
“Mariposa is simply one of hundreds of botnets we track on a daily basis. We have got these sensors placed at various research partners around the world. We are able to see botnet traffic and watch how they form.”
It was largely thanks to the information provided by Defence Intelligence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police in Spain were able to destroy the rogue computer network — made up of more than 13 million infected computers from 180 countries — and capture some of the key players involved in its operation.
The hackers behind Mariposa had access to all the personal, banking and credit card information on infected computers. The botnet included infected machines inside the offices of more than 40 major banks and a vast majority of the top companies on the Fortune 1000 index.
The personal information of more than 800,000 individuals has also been recovered as a result of the FBI’s Mariposa investigation.
Defence Intelligence makes software that monitors incoming and outgoing transmissions of every computer on a corporate network. Using its own network of sensors — which track the development and expansion of rogue computer networks globally — the company can red-flag certain websites and Internet addresses being used to steal information.
If a computer on a corporate network is sending information to a location that has been identified, Defence Intelligence will know and can step in.
“We’ve got three government departments using it right now, which I can’t name, and one of the largest financial institutions in the world,” said Davis.
“We have a product that really works against this botnet thing.”
The software is the brainchild of Davis, who started his career as a security consultant for the federal government in the early 2000s, bouncing from contract to contract.
It was at this time he met Chris Ginley, who was to become a co-founder of Defence Intelligence.
In 2005, Davis was given the chance to put his security knowledge to the test as a technical lead of global security for Dell Computer Corp. at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas.
He took the job and a few months later invited Ginley to come down and join him.
The two were tossed headfirst into the growing botnet problem, which was then in its infancy.
Since he came up with the idea for Defence Intelligence, it has identified and helped to protect its customers against dozens of botnets and malicious software programs — with Mariposa botnet being the jewel in its crown.
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