KEYW acquires Ponte Technologies and Milestone Intelligence Group

The KEYW Holding Corporation announced on March 18 it has acquired Ponte Technologies, LLC (PonteTec) and Milestone Intelligence Group, Inc. (Milestone), increasing the Hanover, MD-based firm’s cyber capabilities for both government and commercial customers.

PonteTec adds capabilities focused on cybersecurity engineering and research with skills in network, host, and application security, cryptography, security automation, vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, and malware analysis. PonteTec’s customers include both government organizations and commercial enterprises with a concentration in financial services. Milestone supports national-level Intelligence Community customers with core competencies in cybersecurity, cloud computing, software engineering, and test and evaluation engineering.

As a result of these acquisitions, KEYW has formed a new sector called Emerging Technologies and Markets (ETM) to focus on opportunities that leverage KEYW technologies into new markets, identify emerging technologies with the potential to promote organic growth, and identify and shape opportunities for new technology solutions. As part of the formation of ETM, KEYW has hired Richard C. (Dick) Schaeffer, Jr., former Director of Information Assurance at the National Security Agency, to run the new sector. The PonteTec and Milestone acquisitions form the core of ETM.

“A critical part of KEYW’s growth strategy is to continue our efforts to go down a ‘horizontal path,'” commented Len Moodispaw, CEO and President of KEYW Corporation. “The horizontal path leverages KEYW’s deep technology experience in solving some of the intelligence community’s most difficult problems to develop new solutions, new products, and new markets to enhance organic growth. Under Dick’s leadership, I expect ETM will play a significant role in executing this strategy. The acquisitions of Ponte Technologies and Milestone Intelligence Group will serve as accelerators in key technology areas such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, and test and evaluation engineering.”

Mr. Schaeffer is a former senior executive with the National Security Agency (NSA), with over 40 years total U.S. Government service, including 15 years as a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service. He brings extensive executive leadership, management and technical experience in the area of information security and intelligence. Since retiring from the NSA in April 2010, Mr. Schaeffer has continued to pursue his passion for improving the security of U.S. interests in the Cyber domain through his private consulting firm. His client base included a full range of private sector companies from small start-ups, to mid-size companies, to large system integrators and commercial businesses.

On March 13, 2015, KEYW acquired Ellicott City, Maryland-based Ponte Technologies, LLC. PonteTec was founded in 2007 by Ed Giorgio and Bruce Potter. Ed brings 43 years of experience in the Intelligence Community, sits on the NSA Advisory Board, and is the only person to serve as both Chief U.S. Codemaker and Chief U.S. Codebreaker. Bruce Potter brings 18 years of cyber security research experience to KEYW, has authored several books, speaks regularly at security conferences, and is the founder of the Shmoo Group of security, crypto, and privacy professionals and hosts the ShmooCon hacker conference held annually in Washington, DC.

On January 16, 2015, KEYW acquired Hanover, Maryland-based Milestone Intelligence Group, Inc. Milestone was founded in 2010 by Doug Stewart, Dave Krause, and Mike Day. Doug served 20 years in the United States Air Force and brings 37 years’ experience supporting the Intelligence Community performing all aspects of program management, system engineering, major acquisition test and evaluation (T&E), and operational support. Dave and Mike bring a combined 35 years’ technical experience in the software and system engineering disciplines and currently support cloud computing infrastructure projects for government customers.

Source: KEYW Corp