Rotterdam Innovation City | Counter hostile cyber threats from ship to shore with Threatspan

Cybercriminals are warned! Threatspan from Rotterdam just started!

Cyber attacks happen all over the world. This means that the maritime and shipping supply chain is also a victim of this hard-to-beat crime. Rotterdam-based Threatspan was one of 14 start-ups elected by PortXL this year. Threatspan received full support of PortXL in their aim to bring nautical resilience to enterprises, partners, and ecosystem players in the maritime and shipping supply chain. Founder and CEO Leon Yen is thankful for the support of PortXL and already feels at home in the Makersdistrict of Rotterdam. Leon: ‘Rotterdam is perfect for starters. Especially for Threatspan. We benefit immensely from the city's diverse shipping and maritime ecosystem.’

Shipping and maritime ecosystem

Threatspan solutions are custom-tailored to the shipping and maritime world, allowing enterprises to counter hostile cyber threats from ship to shore, and to innovate safely with security as a foundation. If the maritime supply chain is your playing field, there is no better city to establish than Rotterdam. Leon totally agrees: ‘As a startup focused on maritime cybersecurity, Threatspan has benefitted immensely from the city's rich maritime heritage and current status as the world’s smartest port and, of course, Europe’s busiest. Surely, the city has been integral to the success of our company. The city is home to many world leading maritime enterprises and starting up here has brought us into close proximity of our target customers and given us a substantial foothold in the industry. This has all happened within a relatively short amount of time.’

Two weapons to fight cybercrime

To explain what Threatspan does, the use of jargon is inevitable. Threatspan fights the cybercrime with two weapons. The Tridens Platform and Brizo cyber monitoring for maritime sensor. Tridens is the first nautical resilience platform designed for shipping and maritime enterprises. It combines intrusion detection, resilience monitoring, cyber risk scoring and more. The second weapon, Brizo provides continuous security for reducing the attack surface without stifling digital innovation and transformation. The solution provides continuous cyber monitoring for vessel IT and OT networks in a subcompact, rugged form factor ideal for maritime environments.

Tridens screenshot — Treatspan platforms

Rotterdam’s got talent and an ideal work-life balance

With Rotterdam serving as headquarter and offices in Silicon Valley and Taipei, Leon knows where he talks about. Leon: ‘Here in Rotterdam, you find highly-skilled workers abound, both in the form of experienced professionals and new graduates from Erasmus University and other universities. Rotterdam is vibrant, multi-cultural and full of events year-round. It has an ideal work-life balance. The city is simply a great place to start up a company. You’ll find affordable offices, plenty of public green space and a local startup-business community in tune with the latest tech innovations.’

Rotterdam is happy to have Threatspan. The company delivers security solutions that are indispensable for a maritime capital of Europe. Innovations in information and communication technology are crucial to a resilient and secure development of one of Rotterdam’s most important industries.