Fulton-based cybersecurity startup Dragos partners with Deloitte

Fulton-based cybersecurity startup Dragos has a new partnership with Deloitte.
The consulting giant’s cybersecurity offerings will now include Dragos’ platform, which aims to protect the industrial control systems and operational technology of infrastructure that provides key functions like power and water, as well as large industries like oil and gas and manufacturing.
Deloitte said in a statement that it has made big investments in this these types of cybersecurity offerings as industrial processes become more digital. Dragos will help increase their capabilities. “Many organizations have started to focus on securing ICS and OT, but less so on monitoring emerging cyber threats,” Deloitte said.
Dragos founders Robert M. Lee, Jon Lavender and Justin Cavinee met while working in the U.S. intelligence community, and set out to create a platform that addresses the risk to an attack that the large networks face. There are threats from big actors like nation-states, but also the internal security issues that many companies face.
Lee said a key for the company is that it is developed by people who are familiar with the threats. As he put it, “We’ve lived these problems. We haven’t just admired them.” The scale required for the complex systems also brought the need to automate processes, and the company also provides intelligence about potential threats.
Dragos raised a $1.2 million seed round last year, and its team has grown to include more than a dozen people. With the Deloitte deal, Lee said they are likely to begin raising a Series A as they scale up.
“It’s a validation of our technology and our people that a company of the size and expertise of Deloitte would be seeking us,” Lee said. He added that the company plans to stay in Maryland as they grow, citing the proximity to talent coming out of Fort Meade, which houses NSA headquarters.