NineSigma Announces Winners Chosen by Cisco in Security Grand Challenge Focused on the Internet of Things (IoT)

CLEVELAND, Oct.16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- NineSigma, Inc., the leading innovation partner to organizations worldwide, today announced the selection of four winners in the Cisco Internet of Things (IoT) Security Grand Challenge. The winners, who were honored at Cisco's IoT World Forum, include a Carnegie Mellon University team from the Silicon Valley campus; a Cornell Tech and Rice University Team from New York City, NY and Houston, TX; an Excalibur Group team from Poprad, Slovakia, and innovators from Aircloak and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Kaiserslautern, Germany. These solution providers each received $75,000 in addition to exhibition space at the IoT World Forum.

Tweet this:  #IoT Security Innovations Chosen by @Cisco #OpenInnovation leader @NineSigma innovating the networked world! http://bit.ly/1xPS0RS

A Grand Challenge involves reaching across the globe for solutions that address complex problems, such as preventing epidemics of infectious diseases or combating global warming. These programs include a significant monetary prize and creating awareness to bring attention to the causes being addressed. NineSigma managed all aspects of the Cisco Grand Challenge, and its online platform, NineSights, was the focal point for the program. The challenge also leveraged NineSigma's process for developing needs statements that attract qualified solution providers across industries, and its global network of millions of scientific and technical experts, including several Nobel Prize winners. 

The Cisco Grand Challenge was an initiative to help secure the Internet of Things (IoT) — the smart, Internet-enabled devices changing everything including the way we heat our homes or run our manufacturing facilities. The number of these sensors, objects and other connected "things" is expected to grow to 50 billion by 2020.

For these devices to deliver on the promise of a connected future, cybersecurity models need to radically change. NineSigma successfully attracted more than 100 high-quality proposals from 33 countries on behalf of Cisco.

"We partnered with NineSigma to expand our search for new ideas to advance security innovation beyond our existing networks. The four winning solutions from this challenge represent some of the most innovative approaches to enable people and organizations to benefit from the IoT. As more organizations adopt new business models related to the IoT, these solutions demonstrate strong potential in enabling organizations to protect IoT interactions before, during and after an attack," said Martin Roesch, vice president and chief architect, Cisco Security Business Group.

NineSigma CEO Andy Zynga said, "Cisco is an innovator at the top of their industry, committed to relentless innovation. We are proud to partner with them in the Grand Challenge that will play an important part in securing our increasingly networked world. These challenges are too far ranging for one single organization or industry to tackle on their own. The beauty of Grand Challenges is their ability to elicit unexpected solutions that can be groundbreaking."

The winning proposals of the Cisco IoT Security Grand Challenge include:

• Excalibur Group, which is creating an overarching identity framework for the IoT based on graph theory, local block chain and context awareness. The solution utilizes the mobile phone or a wearable computer to act as a universal security token.
• Cornell Tech and Rice University, working together to create physical proof-of-presence protocols for transient connections in the IoT and operating in backwards-compatible mode with legacy standards.
• The Carnegie Mellon University team, which is creating a solution to control IoT privacy risks and trade-offs with Fog Mediation.
• Aircloak and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, which is developing a technology and service that provides highly accurate aggregate analytics over use data while strongly protecting user privacy.

About NineSigma

NineSigma connects organizations with external innovation resources to accelerate innovation in private, public and social sectors. The company provides open innovation services to organizations worldwide, including Kraft Foods, Philips, Siemens, and Unilever, to solve immediate challenges, integrate new knowledge, fill product pipelines, and stay ahead of the competition. Named to the 2014 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private U.S. companies, NineSigma's proprietary process has produced billions of dollars in value for its clients. NineSigma has the largest open global network of solution providers and an extensive database of existing solutions spanning numerous industries and technical disciplines. NineSigma's online innovation community, NineSights®, is the world's first open innovation social media destination, connecting innovators of all sizes with resources and relationships to drive growth. Learn more at www.ninesigma.com and www.ninesights.com. 

Media Contact: 
Jackie Lucas, Warner Communications — [email protected], (978) 255-1159

SOURCE NineSigma

Related Links

http://www.ninesigma.com