ics-security
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Dragos Turned a Three-Person Side Project Into Security for the Machines Nobody Can Reboot
Dragos began with three practitioners, a packet-capture tool, and a founder who did not want to become a software vendor. A decade later, its field notes defend grids, factories and water systems - and explain why industrial security cannot be treated like office IT.
DeNexus
DeNexus is a Boston-based cyber risk company that quantifies the financial impact of cyber threats to industrial and operational technology (OT) environments. Its DeRISK platform uses AI, machine learning and simulation to predict where breaches are likely in OT/ICS networks, express that risk in dollar terms, and prioritize mitigation by ROI. The company serves CISOs, boards, risk managers and cyber insurers across data centers, energy, manufacturing and transportation, and has expanded into agentic-AI underwriting automation for the industrial cyber insurance market.
Jose Seara
Jose Seara is the founder and CEO of DeNexus, a Boston-based company that quantifies cyber risk for operational technology and industrial control systems. A naval and marine engineer by training, he spent nearly two decades building critical infrastructure and renewable energy companies across Europe and North America before pivoting to cybersecurity. He started DeNexus after discovering, as an energy operator, that he could not measure his own company's cyber risk or insure against it. His DeRISK platform turns technical threat data into financial metrics that boards and insurers can act on.
Dispel
Dispel is an Austin, Texas-based operational technology (OT) cybersecurity company that builds a Zero Trust Engine for industrial control systems. Its platform combines secure remote access, real-time industrial data streaming, unified OT connectivity (OTFusion), and 24/7 threat monitoring, all built around Moving Target Defense - a technique that constantly shifts network paths so attackers never get a stable target. Dispel lets manufacturers, utilities, energy operators, and government agencies give vendors and engineers fast, audited access to plant equipment without the friction of legacy VPNs and jump boxes.
Ian Schmertzler
Ian Schmertzler is co-CEO and co-founder of Dispel, an operational-technology cybersecurity company he started in 2015 with his brother Ethan. A Yale-trained industrial engineer and former crew coxswain, Ian helped build Dispel's zero trust platform around Moving Target Defense - a system that keeps shifting network access points so attackers never find a static target. He serves as a principal investigator on three NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence projects and as vice president of the National Defense Industrial Association's NY-CT chapter, working to keep factories, water utilities, and power grids running quietly and safely.