PAI Security inc | Application Preview
PAI Security Inc. is seeking government grants to fund developer costs associated with the final stages of product development for their IoT security solution. They plan to allocate some funds for management and marketing as well.
The business aims to launch its product through beta testing in about a month with 100 volunteer testers. Initially, PAI plans to target small to medium-sized businesses for IoT device security, transitioning to larger enterprises and eventually expanding into consumer markets. Their growth strategy includes continuously improving their software based on customer feedback, enhancing security features, and increasing their workforce for development and marketing as they grow.
The rationale for funding approval is rooted in the increasing prevalence of IoT device hacks. With the growing number of smart devices, security vulnerabilities have become a major concern. PAI highlights several issues, including inadequate security on many devices, user unawareness of security settings, unchanged default passwords, and privacy risks associated with devices demanding excessive permissions.
PAI Security's solution, Network.IOT, enables users to secure multiple devices from a single interface, addressing both network and device security proactively. Their subscription-based model will cater to varying numbers of devices, allowing them to gather anonymized data on device usage without compromising user privacy.
To differentiate themselves in a competitive landscape that includes companies like CyberX and Fingbox, PAI offers a more exhaustive security approach, which includes device hardening and automated security protocols. Their competitive advantage lies in their ability to secure IoT devices effortlessly with minimal user input, along with their industry connections that bolster their credibility and market entry strategy.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 85-2198370
Location: Portland, OR, United States
Length of Operation: legally 1 month
Number of Employees:
Annual Gross Income:
Annual Gross Expense:
Open to Loans: NO
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Funding Usage
This will be used to pay programmer costs in the main stages of development and fine tuning the product, in addition to a month of management by our programmers. Some of this will be used for marketing purposes.
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Business Plan
Let me put out a rough outline. In about a month we will be able to start beta testing. We have about 100 beta testers that are ready to try out our product. In the short term we plan on selling IOT device security to small-medium size companies, eventually moving into larger companies. After we have created a strong, reputable, brand presence for ourselves, we plan to move into the consumer space. We foresee us moving into the B2B market in about 2 months, and the B2C market in about 6 months. As we continue to grow our customer base, we will continue iterating the product and constantly improving it. As it is improved, we plan to add new features that customers ask for, and optimize the security of our software even more. As we grow we will hire more programmers and marketers in order to improve our product(s) and build our brand presence even stronger. We have a vision and a mission to build this product into a personal security platform that allows the user (individual or organization) to take control of their security needs while having a trusted, experienced, and professional security brand to back them up. As time passes we will decide on our company exit, if we want to have an IPO or to just sell/merge it. We hope to have the opportunity to merge or acquire other organizations that will help our cause and provide value to our company. In the last 3 years there has been an increasing number of internet of things device hacks. As more connected devices are being sold on the market, and the adoption rate is growing at a high pace, soon most devices will be ‘smart’ devices. This technological and societal trend brings along with it new challenges, such as privacy, security, and data collection. All of these devices are prone to flaws and leaks, and there have been a large amount of hacks that have hit mainstream media. There are examples in both private industry and in the public sphere. Within the private industry there are many examples of employees setting up internet connected devices, either their own or the company’s, connected to the company’s network, thus creating holes within the network. However, in the public, the problem is significantly worse, as it stems from a few factors. 1. The devices themselves are not security oriented, the few ones that are, cost hundreds more. 2. Even if the devices have some decent basic security settings, the overwhelming majority of the public are not security savvy to enable those settings. 3. The majority of the current IOT devices do not even have their basic passwords changed from factory settings, allowing anyone with beginner software skills to look up the passwords for each device. 4. It is becoming increasingly easier to implement Internet of things capability to many devices, allowing for a surge of IOT devices into the market, even from cheaper manufacturers. - On a side note, we once bought a smart doorbell from China, and when we connected it to one of our phones, it requested access to the phone’s photos, contacts, certain apps, and other private data, on top of requiring access to the wifi, and bluetooth connection to the phone. Why would a doorbell need access to your contacts, photos, other apps, and other private data? We bought a camera for one of our pitches, and were able to find 2 flaws within 3 hours of testing it. 5. Many of the devices require you to make accounts Network.IOT by PAI Security (us) allows the admin to secure a large number of devices from a single workstation while also securing the network and changing passwords before attacks happen. This is our pricing strategy: We are planning to launch a subscription based service based on the amount of devices in the user’s home/office. As our subscriber base grows, we will hold a lot of data on the types of devices our users have, the amount of traffic/uses on those devices, amount of data processed, and how often the devices are used. We can gain this information without compromising the user’s private information. This is our defensible position: Copyright on our code. First to market We have developed relationships with Newfathom IT, Juan Renaud (manager of it at Legacy Research institute), Diane Fraiman, OSU Accelerator Program, Josh Cook (IT manager, Bluestone and Hockley), Hugh Mackworth, Dale McCauley, and Julaine Brands and many more mentors within the industry and within the entrepreneurship community in Oregon.
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Self Identified Competition
Current solutions include cyberx, fingbox, senr.io, and forescout. Most of these solutions are targeting mid sized to large corporations (B2B). They are more focused on segmenting the network and detecting if a device is compromised, rather than protecting the devices themselves, because IOT devices are very diverse and hard to individually secure. PAI not only works on segmenting and protecting the network, detecting when devices are infected and analyzing network traffic, we also security harden the devices themselves. We are initially planning to target consumers, and eventually move to smaller businesses. When you launch the app, it will find all devices with default settings and automatically change them to security hardened ones. The user will be able to add and remove IOT devices freely with the option to add guest devices. The application passively runs in the background to detect any malicious activity and quarantine devices if they become infected. For most smart devices it can take up to 20 minutes to set up a security or management platform but with Network.IOT, the user can secure all of their smart home devices with a click of a button.Network.IOT scans the network for open telenet, ssh, and other popular protocols, then tests to see if they are using default passwords. Essentially we are running our very own specialized version of Mirai against every home, to secure it instead of to conscript it into a botnet. We also look at the manufacturer's update schedule, and apply patches when a patch has been released, preventing hackers from invoking a malicious patch without permission.
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