ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cybergy Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: CYBG) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of CROSS Sciences LLC, a key partner in enhancing the firm’s cybersecurity offerings, including its proprietary SmartFile technology which provides real-time document intelligence and insider threat detection.
In what is the largest known attack of its kind to date, overseas hackers infiltrated the electronic repository of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and gained access for a period of at least several months to the Social Security records and other personal identifying information (PII) of four million current and former U.S. Government employees. The sheer scale and duration of the data breach, along with the high-profile target, is the most dramatic illustration so far of the threat that cyberattacks pose to the American people, in particular one bearing the fingerprints of a highly sophisticated and suspected state-sponsored attack.
Cybergy takes cybersecurity seriously and is committed to serving as a center of excellence and expertise for both government and commercial clients as well as developing and offering the best products and services to combat such cyber-threats.
CROSS Sciences is a Colorado-based multi-disciplinary consulting and technical advisory firm focused on energy and electric grid reliability and resiliency including cybersecurity issues. The company also provides project capital and financial advisory services for renewable energy, oil and natural gas, mining, and transmission infrastructure across various technologies. Past clients and partners have included the Department of Defense (DoD) and intelligence agencies, national research laboratories, investor owned utilities, and independent power producers.
The firm is headed by Richard C. Donohoe, an Air Force veteran with an extensive professional background in military cyber-operations and, more recently, in developing large-scale clean and renewable energy projects for the Federal Government and Fortune 200 corporate clients.
“Today we are pleased to welcome Richard Donohoe to the Cybergy team as he brings his professional experience in cyber-operations and energy issues that is particularly well-suited to our mission,” said Mark Gray, Chairman and CEO of Cybergy. “As Director of Infrastructure Programs for Cybergy member company New West Technologies, Richard will be responsible for helping our family of companies expand its cybersecurity, Smart Grid and renewable energy businesses.”
Among Richard’s achievements as head of CROSS Sciences, he authored the cybersecurity, grid reliability, and resiliency components of a joint Emergency Action Plan for the States of Arizona and Nevada. His work focused on detailing the necessary architecture and computer emergency response teams to counter cyber-threats posed to the electric, gas, and water transmission systems that drive billions of dollars’ worth of gross domestic product (GDP) across those two states and Southern California.
Richard also completed a technical design of national critical infrastructure for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), distributed control systems (DCS), and Human Machine Interface (HMI) technology to ensure their reliability. He has extensive working relationships with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
“Richard brings invaluable critical infrastructure operations experience focused on the intersection of cybersecurity and electric power management coupled with an energy sector regulatory and financial background,” said Wyly Wade, Chief Technology Officer for Cybergy Partners and Cybergy Labs. “This blend of experience and expertise should allow Cybergy Partners to bring its SmartFile electronic system and other products and services to users in the power sector. In the case of SmartFile, it provides near real-time information on who is accessing files and thus allows users to determine whether their critical information has been compromised and where cybersecurity efforts should be focused.”
For his part, Richard is looking forward to the wider range of opportunities being part of Cybergy and will be focused in particular on the cybersecurity of the country’s energy infrastructure.
“The recent major hacking event is part of a trend in the past two years of increasing hacking by nation-state actors or front companies who are systematically compromising the U.S. infrastructure network and collecting data ranging from almost any database including the energy grid,” said Richard Donohoe. “By joining the talented and committed team at New West and Cybergy, my goal is to help our nation seriously address cybersecurity and give critical infrastructure owners the ability to help bring the end customer an acceptable level of trust, security, reliability and resiliency.”
About Cybergy Holdings, Inc.
Cybergy Holdings, Inc., (OTC: CYBG) is a national leader in cybersecurity, smart grid technologies, renewable energy, and mission-oriented government services. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, Cybergy Holdings’ team of approximately 100 employees delivers innovative technical and management services through its 3 divisions: Cybergy Labs, an award-winning developer of specialized cybersecurity software applications, including SmartFile; New West Technologies, which was founded in 1996 and provides clean, smart, and reliable energy solutions and is a 5 time winner of the Inc. 500/5000 fastest growing private companies in America; and Primetrix, which serves U.S. Federal Government contractor firms with contract procurement, compliance, and growth services.
For more information, please visit www.cybergypartners.com
