Accenture Ventures, Raytheon Technologies’ RTX Ventures, and Stellar Ventures make an investment to accelerate SpiderOak’s deployment of zero-trust, end-to-end data security solutions for commercial and government customers operating in space.
This investment continues SpiderOak’s ambition to partner with industry giants to address what the U.S. Space Force has identified as the “soft underbelly” of the U.S. national security space infrastructure and will accelerate SpiderOak’s extension of OrbitSecure into the ground infrastructure to ensure end-to-end encrypted data security. SpiderOak’s OrbitSecure product suite provides a zero-trust, end-to-end data encryption that addresses the unique challenges of securing space-based assets.
“SpiderOak’s innovative approach to zero-trust cybersecurity solutions for the space industry aligns with our mission to prioritize and elevate cybersecurity in this critical area,” said Tom Patterson, Quantum and Space Security lead at Accenture. “To safeguard our future, we must give cybersecurity the same priority in space as it now has throughout critical infrastructure on the ground.”
Daniel Ateya, president and managing director of RTX Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Raytheon Technologies said that “SpiderOak is an emerging player in the software industry. The satellite systems we rely on to be the eyes and ears of our national defense are very much at-risk from cyber threats; we see our investment in SpiderOak as a key enabler in helping our clients maintain, secure and resilient data communication and storage in these highly contested environments from ground to LEO to cislunar.”
Layoffs: LInkedIN
LinkedIn has plans to layoff 716 employees, worldwide. The Microsoft-owned company will also be ending its Chinese jobs app – InCareer. LinkedIn employs about 19,000 employees, and this move impacts around 3.5% of their staff.
“Though InCareer experienced some success in the past year thanks to our strong China-based team, it also encountered fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate,” LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said in their message to employees about the layoff plans.
Hiring: State Department
The U.S. State Department has an open requisition for GS-13 data scientist positions, under their Center for Analytics (CfA). The position closes on May 25 – or when 400 applications roll in. Federal News Network reported that the hiring will be in the double digits, according to the CfA’s division director. Those projections line up with prior years, as the State Department added 50 data scientists last year, and 25-30 in its pilot year for this program.
Cleared Employer at Work: ClearanceJobs
Opportunity to Watch
U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center (DEVCOM AC) awarded BAE Systems a three-year contract for continued research and development efforts in the advancement of precision guided munitions (PGM) to support the Army’s long-range precision fire modernization efforts.
For nearly a decade, BAE Systems has been investing in the development of ultra-long range and hypervelocity munitions. Under this contract, BAE Systems will team with DEVCOM AC to continue to advance the capabilities of precision cannon munitions to defeat fixed and moving targets in GPS degraded or denied environments at double the range of existing cannon-launched PGMs.
BAE Systems was awarded a $16 million contract in 2021 to mature and demonstrate the lethality of PGMs against long-range land-based targets.
