Its discovery that someone in Iran shared online the engineering and avionics data about one of the helicopters in President Barack Obama’s fleet has thrust a Cranberry (Pa.] Internet security company into the public eye this week.
Tiversa Inc. had become well-known among national security officials as early as 2004 — after a meeting among company co-founders Robert Boback and Sam Hopkins and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Pittsburgh-area natives told Hatch that Tiversa found Arabic-language training videos that al-Qaida operatives were sharing using peer-to-peer networking over the Internet — and that Tiversa’s technology also found the individuals who were searching for those files, Boback said.
“Senator Hatch kept us overnight in Washington, D.C., and set up meetings for us with the CIA in Langley (Va.) the next day,” said Boback, chief executive officer of Tiversa.
“He told us he said to George Tenet, who headed the CIA back then: ‘George, I don’t know if the CIA has this capability, but if they don’t, they better.'”
Today, Tiversa employs nearly 40 employees, all of whom make at least $45,000 — and the company provides Internet security monitoring services for companies around the globe, Boback said.
“I’m 99.9 percent sure that Tiversa is the only game in town. They’re pretty unique in what they do, and how they do it,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Michigan-based Ponemon Institute, an independent research company that focuses on information security and data protection.
Ponemon now sits on Tiversa’s advisory board after being so impressed with the company’s technology, he asked to join.
Media coverage of Tiversa grew after the company alerted the federal government Feb. 25 that someone in Iran had shared a file on potentially sensitive data about a helicopter in President Obama’s fleet, said Keith Tagliaferri, director of operations…