Wireless Security Start-up Gets State, National Millions

A six-year-old Connecticut start-up with an algebraic code and a new approach to security is rounding out a great year with a million-dollar contract from one of the world’s most aggressive clean energy campaigns.

SecureRF, an electronics security firm with 10 employees based in Westport, is one of 12 companies out of thousands worldwide selected for the first round of funding from Fairfield conglomerate General Electric’s Ecomagination initiative, a billion-dollar push from the company to be a global leader in clean and sustainable technologies.

While SecureRF’s slice of GE’s $55 million in private project funding will be determined over the next 18 months, the award gives the company a chance to cater its technology to the clean energy industry and still further explore its applications for the military and various realms of the private sector such as the pharmaceutical and food industries.

Secure RF is not a direct clean energy developer but an important security service provider. It is built around a patent for its mathematical method offering cryptography for low-powered electronic devices. Unlike laptops and computers that have the juice for enhanced security measures, low-powered devices such as sensors and electronic tags don’t have the built-in capability for protection of the information stored within.

GE picked SecureRF to expand its Algebraic Eraser product to cover smart grid technology such as the Nucleus energy manager. The Nucleus tracks how homeowners and property managers use the electricity in their facilities, enabling them to control their energy use for maximum efficiency and when electricity rates are at their cheapest.

As a result, the Nucleus stores millions of pieces of information on a homeowner’s movements and energy use; and, as an extension, all the smart grid devices know how the entire power grid functions.

“At a very early stage, you need to address security and privacy issues,” said Louis Parks, SecureRF president and CEO. “The vulnerability of the power grid is a major concern.”

Clean technology marketing firm Pike Research estimates that smart grid security will nearly triple to a $1.5 billion industry by 2015. Most of the providers in the industry include smart grid developers such as GE and Hewlett-Packard, but include some emerging companies such as RSA, the security division of Rocky Hill data storage company EMC.

GE picked SecureRF for its Ecomagination award because the technology can be developed and adapted smartly to the smart grid devices, said GE spokeswoman Jamie Loftus. More than 4,000 ideas were submitted for the Ecomagination Challenge, which will eventually provide $200 million in funding to companies for the clean energy industry.

“That is going to be important to the future users of the smart grid that their information be secure,” Loftus said.

Since it began in 2004, SecureRF has gone from a mathematical method developed by two cryptography veterans — founders Michael Anshel and Dorian Goldfeld — to a company tapped by the private and public sector to adapt that technology to developing electronic devices.

In 2007, the National Science Foundation awarded SecureRF a $150,000 Small Business Innovative Research grant to develop security for radio-frequency identification tags. These wireless RFIDs are used to track supplies stored in a packaging device such as a pallet or box, enabling companies — retailers are a big user — to know exactly what is in a package or in its inventory without having to physically see and count every item. In 2009, the National Science Foundation awarded a follow-up $1 million SBIR grant to SecureRF in this endeavor.

In 2008, the U.S. Air Force also tapped SecureRF with a $150,000 SBIR grant to develop a high-security satellite-enabled RFID system, so the military can track its various inventory spread out over the globe.

“This has enormous implications for the federal government and their operations,” said Deb Santy, Connecticut director of the SBIR program. “They can be as unhackable as can be.”

The federal SBIR program is highly competitive, and Connecticut has 65-85 companies each year winning about 140 awards, Santy said. SecureRF’s active use of this program bodes well for its long-term development.

“I’m just really glad Connecticut gets a company like this that can really grow here,” Santy said. “When you see a company like GE picking them from thousands of applications… that really says something.”

Because SecureRF’s research and development department is so small, the Ecomagination contract will have a lasting impact on the company’s ability to adapt its technology to the smart grid. Security measures can take decades to develop and bring to market, Parks said, and the funds will accelerate SecureRF’s implementation of its technology.

As it negotiates its deal with GE, SecureRF is working with Connecticut Innovations to expand its staffing and resources to meet its new demands and realize this new direction in its cryptography.

“This state as whole has put in a great infrastructure to support innovation, and we are benefitting from it,” Parks said.