Elliot Siemiatycki is the Director of Business Development at Lorica Cybersecurity, which is now in stage two of the Catalyst’s Cyber Challenge go-to-market program. Lorica is a Toronto-based company established in 2017 to redefine data privacy. They are a global leader in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) which are used by public and private organizations to protect sensitive data, analytics and AI inferences.
Learn more about Lorica on their website: Loricacyber.com
- What’s something that’s being overlooked in the cybersecurity industry right now?
Everyone is excited about how AI can help improve cybersecurity outcomes and achieve amazing improvements in our lives. We’re excited about those things as well. However, our team is concerned that not enough attention is being paid to the security and privacy of these AI systems being deployed.
AI systems have weaknesses that can be exploited by bad actors or exposed by simple human error. While we should continue to pursue data-driven AI innovations for many good reasons, we should do them in a responsible way that protects sensitive and proprietary information.
- Pitch your startup to us as if we’re an individual or organization that thinks cybercrime is “someone else’s problem.”
Cybercrime undermines every function of an organization, from basic operations to innovation, client experience, and brand reputation.
Cybercrime is like personal health risk or potential damage to your home—no one likes to dwell on what bad things might happen in the future, but we still go to the doctor every year and keep our homeowners’ insurance up to date. Our team at Lorica Cybersecurity works with regulated enterprises to identify their most sensitive data and AI models so that we can protect them with quantum-ready, “always-on” encryption.
Once their valuable data and insights are protected, they’re free to operate with absolute confidence that their operations, innovation activities, and brand connection are safeguarded against current and future cyber threats.
- What impact do you hope to see in 2030, from the work your startup is doing?
We have a deep belief that the encryption technology we’re developing will be the underlying privacy fabric for all AI-enabled computing in the future.
It will be a completely transparent, foundational tool that end users are not even aware of, but behind the scenes, sensitive personal and corporate data will be fully protected by our quantum-ready, “always-on” encryption.
- How is the Cyber Challenge helping you right now?
The Cyber Challenge is helping us right now by:
- Connecting us with great mentors that can evaluate our go-to-market strategy;
- Introducing us to experts in the Life Sciences sector that are helping to refine our product-market fit as we enter this industry; and
- Facilitating discussions with health organization leaders that will have a need for our technology solutions. This is a huge help for our company!
- What’s the best-case outcome for your experience with Cyber Challenge?
Our best-case outcome would be to have a clear go-to-market plan for 2025 in the life sciences sector with some real leads and a refined strategy to execute the initial pilots of our solutions. We are well on our way to that outcome, in large part due to the support of our mentors and the Cyber Challenge program team.
