OptioLabs partners with former US Homeland Security chief

A Camden Yards-based cybersecurity company focusing on keeping data safe when it gets outside the wires of a network is partnering with the firm founded by George W. Bush’s first Secretary of Homeland Security.
OptioLabs and D.C.-based Ridge Global are forming a strategic partnership that combines products and services. Tom Ridge, who also served as governor of Pennsylvania in the ’90s, is now a member of OptioLabs’ board. There was no investment as part of the deal.
OptioLabs has security tools that protect data from being stolen off a mobile phone, or by visual eavesdroppers who may be looking at data on a computer screen. Ridge Global consults with companies to evaluate their cyber risk, and handle breaches. Along with Ridge, the team also includes former White House cybersecurity advisor Howard Schmidt and former UK National Security Advisor Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones.
OptioLabs CEO Gregg Smith said the companies “plan to leverage each other’s strengths and go to market in tandem,” which will include co-branding at industry events.
“Tom Ridge himself provides board-level cyber consulting. At OptioLabs, we have the tools to enhance security posture and the knowledge of how to deploy these tools,” Smith said. “Thus, our two companies complement each other quite well.”