New Documents Reveal Government Storing Personal Info From Cell Phones

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Stunning new revelations about wide-ranging surveillance by the NSA. The government is amassing a staggering amount of information from cell phones, and that’s drawing sharp criticism from privacy advocates.

They’ve also been boon to several Maryland businesses.

Mike Hellgren breaks down the concerns.

If your cell phone is on, chances are it’s emitting a wealth of information about your location — information the government is now collecting with wide-ranging consequences.

Your phone sends a wealth of location data, mapping where you are, when you’re there and for how long.

New documents leaked from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal the government is storing staggering amounts of that personal information — much of it on ordinary citizens — in a quest to protect against terrorist attacks.

All the concern over security has turned into big business for companies like Maryland-based Koolspan, which makes chips and apps that secure calls, taxes and other data.

“We’ll grow probably 1,000 percent this year, with Snowden being just one key component ,” said Koolspan CEO Gregg Smith. “Most of the countries where you have the ability to travel to today have some type of listening capabilities or eavesdropping capabilities.”

The CEO says while privacy is a valid concern, your phone’s GPS system plays an important safety role.

“If you happen to hit 911 and you have an emergency, you want the first responders to find you,” he said.

With the U.S. accused of spying on foreign leaders — even cardinals at the Vatican — the data tracking has drawn scrutiny from Congress.

Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski is one of several lawmakers pushing for better disclosure from the government.

They want to amend a defense spending bill to require the NSA to say whether it “has ever collected the cell-site location information of a large number of United States persons with no known connection to suspicious activity.”

It’s part of a continuing debate over whether U.S. intelligence has gone too far.

“The NSA’s mission is to collect and analyze foreign intelligence in order to protect our country and its national security. NSA does not have any program to collect bulk locational metadata from mobile devices inside the United States. If the NSA incidentally collects metadata on a U.S. person, there are privacy protections and minimization procedures in place,” said Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger in a statement. “It is also important we remember that the Intelligence Community has been working hard, and within the bounds of the law, to keep the country and our allies safe. We must continue to support its lawful means of doing so. The threat is very real and reinforces the need for robust foreign collection.”

The Washington Post reports the NSA has vast access to carriers’ networks, pulling in location data from around the world.

Digital Fabrication Pioneer Potomac Photonics Expands to New Facility at BWTech@UMBC

Tech firm moving to bwtech@UMBC after 29 years in Prince George's

A 31-year-old Prince George’s County tech company is moving to bwtech@UMBC, the incubator at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Potomac Photonics focuses on digital manufacturing and it provides its customers with small hole drilling, laser micromachining, 3D printing and micromarking. The company started in Alexandria, Va., and relocated to Prince George's County in 1984.

Potomac Photonics CEO Mike Adelstein describes the company as a machine shop that does really small things.

“Think of the size of a human hair follicle, it’s roughly 75 microns,” he said. “What we deal with at times is smaller than that.”

Adelstein is a 1996 graduate of UMBC and he sees the move as a potential recruiting tool. Potomac will be utilizing interns as well as graduate students for some of its work, he said. It will give Potomac a good way to try the students out and see if it would like to bring them on as full-time employees.

Meanwhile, the company can also add guidance to some of the younger companies at UMBC.

Potomac has about 20 employees and nearly $2.5 million in revenue, he said. With this move, Adelstein said it will allow Potomac to grow for the future. The company expects to hire at least five people within the next year and that’s not including interns and graduate students.

Adelstein is part owner of the company after being a part of a $1.8 million buyout in December 2012.

The move will allow Potomac to be in a more tech-centric community, he said.

GBC honors winners of Bridging the Gap Awards

The Greater Baltimore Committee honored 13 winners of 2013 Bridging the Gap Awards for outstanding achievement by minority-owned and women-owned businesses and for exemplary support of minority business development during November 14 awards ceremonies at the Grand Historic Venue in Baltimore, Maryland.

Bridging the Gap finalists in four award categories are:

Achievement by a minority- or woman-owned business

• ACL Computers and Software, Inc.
• Axiom Engineering Design
• Baltimore Window Factory
• BottomLine Growth Strategies, Inc.
• Daytner Construction Group
• Intelect Corporation
• Point.Click.Switch
• Proove Biosciences, Inc.

Majority-owned business demonstrating inclusive business practices

• Bon Secours Health System, Inc.

Partnerships/strategic alliances

• TargetGov and bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park

President's Award

• Stephanie Hill, president, Lockheed Martin IS&GS-Civil
• Senator Verna Jones-Rodwell

Also recognized as award finalists were:

• Keller Professional Services, Baltimore Md., for business achievement;
• REJ & Associates, Baltimore, Md., for business achievement;
• Sheila Lee & Associates, LLC, Baltimore, Md., for business achievement;
• RK&K Engineers, Baltimore, Md., as a majority-owned business demonstrating inclusive business practices;
• University of Maryland Medical System, as a majority-owned business demonstrating inclusive business practices;
• Mimar McKissick Education, for its majority-owned/minority-owned partnership or strategic alliance;
• Johns Hopkins Medicine and Mahogany, Inc., for its majority-owned/minority-owned partnership or strategic alliance;

The GBC also recognized Renee Sprow, director of the Maryland Small Business Development Technology Resource Center, as a finalist for the President's Award.

More information on Bridging the Gap Award winners

In Maryland's chase to be a cyber hub, the state needs to push for cyber products, rather than services to attract investment

Kevin Litten

Staff Reporter- Baltimore Business Journal

By nearly every metric, Maryland looks like a place poised to become a hub for the cyber security industry — the sort of place where academia, a skilled workforce and demand for products and services are well-aligned.

Consider the numbers: A January Abell Foundation report identified more than 1,800 firms that posted almost 20,000 cyber security jobs in the state. Eleven academic institutions in the state offer some sort of program to prepare students for work in the sector. And, with Cisco Systems Inc.’s acquisition of Columbia-based cyber security firm Sourcefire Inc., the state now has a $2.7 billion success ...

Read more at http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/print-edition/2013/11/08/in-marylands-chase-to-be-a-cyber-hub.html

Light Point Security Named One of Top Five in Wall Street Journal's Startup of the Year Competition

Named in Top Five Out of 24 Participants and 500 Applicants

Baltimore, MD (November 13, 2013) – bwtech@UMBC is pleased to announce that Light Point Security has been selected by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as a top five finisher of the Wall Street Journal Startup of the Year competition.

“We're proud Light Point Security has been named one of the top five startup companies in the nation,” says Zuly Gonzalez, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Light Point Security. “The outcome of our participation in the WSJ Startup of the Year has exceeded our expectations. We've built-up our customer base and have increased our company's visibility on a national scale. We want to thank the bwtech@UMBC Cyber Incubator and the Northrop Grumman Cync Program for supporting us and helping us reach this point.”

The WSJ Startup of the Year competition, which began June 24,mfeatured 24 companies out of more than 500 applications nationwide.  The series, presented as an episodic video documentary for WSJ Live, matched each company with global business leaders and tracked their progress as startups over the course of five months. More than 40 business leaders served as mentors to the participating companies, including Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, Steve Case, Chairman of the Case Foundation, Chairman of Startup America and co-founder and former CEO of AOL, and Kate Mitchell, Co-Founder and Partner of Scale Venture Partners.

Vic Hess, bwtech’s Cyber Incubator Entrepreneur in Residence, states “We are very pleased that Zuly and Beau were so successful in the WSJ Startup of the Year competition.  Light Point Security has been part of our Northrop Grumman Cync Program for several months and actively contributes to our community of early-stage companies. Their virtual web browser is a rare product that is complex but easy to use and will help many agencies and enterprises that access the web to do so safely.”

“Congratulations to Light Point Security on this prestigious achievement,” said Chris Valentino, Division Director, Contract Research and Development, Northrop Grumman Information Systems. “Cync is providing a foundation for companies to build their business and their technologies so we’re proud to see one of our own earn such an honor and look forward to their continued success.”

Light Point Security’s WSJ Startup of the Year series profile and videos can be viewed at http://projects.wsj.com/soty/startup/light-point-security

About Light Point Security: Light Point Security protects businesses from web-based threats through its innovative product that moves the employees’ web browsers into the cloud so no website content ever reaches their computers. Light Point Security’s award-winning product is the first and only secure web browser. Instead of relying on security through detection, Light Point Security uses virtualization and cloud technologies to provide security through isolation. The company was founded by two former NSA employees and is based in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information on Light Point Security, visit http://lightpointsecurity.com or follow @LightPointSec on Twitter.

About the Cync Program: The Cync Program, www.bwtechumbc.com//cync/, founded in March 2011, is an innovative partnership between Northrop Grumman Corporation and bwtech@UMBC that focuses on commercializing technology to protect the nation from a growing range of cyber threats. The Northrop Grumman Cync Program builds on bwtech@UMBC's successful business-incubation framework by offering a "scholarship program" for small businesses with the most promising cybersecurity ideas. Participants in the program draw on UMBC's research expertise and Northrop Grumman resources to develop tools that will secure and protect our nation's networks.

About bwtech@UMBC: bwtech@UMBC, www.bwtechumbc.com, is a 71-acre research and technology community at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). With over 500,000 square feet of office and laboratory space, it is home to more than 115 technology and life science companies at all stages of development. bwtech@UMBC offers collaboration with university faculty and students and enjoys a strategic and convenient location, close to downtown Baltimore, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Washington, D.C. Its annual economic impact on the state is estimated to be over $300 million.