Clifford Beek: “There are organizations in Saudi that would like to build satellites and the capability to understand the technology” RIYADH: Most high-level institutions face the problem of cybercrime and are willing to pay a large sum to have their information secured and not vulnerable to hacking. Clifford Beek, CEO and president of Cloud Constellation Corporation in Los Angeles, California, spoke to Arab News about this type of security, which his company provides. “Cloud constellation is building eight low earth-orbing satellites,” he said. “These satellites are interconnected using laser optics. They protect highly sensitive data, get it off the ground and move it into a level above the earth.” He added that when data is on the ground it is in motion and prone to being hacked. In 2015, the company came up with an idea to protect sensitive data from being hacked by creating a server in space: “It was to get highly sensitive data in a cloud storage in space that would enable us to move that data around the world and prevent it being subject to hijacking and hacking. It is counterproductive for the economy.” Cloud constellation is a new dimension in cybersecurity, a space-based global network and data storage service that provides cryptocurrency asset owners, exchange operators and banks with a global, seamless cloud infrastructure. This solution isolates and protects sensitive data from the vulnerable global terrestrial network. We could engrain this technology in Saudi Arabia, Beek explained. “There are organizations in Saudi that would like to build satellites and the capability to understand the technology.” The revenue from the business model is not dependent on the Kingdom, he said. “The revenue model is global, because it creates a global presence. Our footprint is global. It is an ideal relationship to bring this project to Saudi Arabia,” he said. The Future Investment Initiative website was hacked a day ahead of the conference. Beek said it could have been protected if it was secured by Security Belt, within the cloud constellation. “I would be almost 100 percent comfortable in saying that, because it is very difficult to hack data when it is above the earth. On the ground there is always some kind of open port where there is access to data. Hackers are very good at crawling through DNS servers.” Beek said hackers find holes and hijack certain servers for their own purposes, but to be protected above ground has more guarantee and companies can rest assured that high-level information and data will stay safe. “It’s a different skill set, to try to hack into a satellite moving data around very quickly,” he said. “We are very proud of the fact that last year we signed an MoU with Arab Sat. Arab Sat is looking to be one of our channel partners. Also, we talked to STC and other groups about using the service for their customers.” In Riyadh, the company held many meetings with local companies, enterprises and government officials to have access to the service. When a consulting company was hired, it found that financial institutions and government entities are the biggest customer base. “For governments, particularly in this region, there is a lot of hospitality around the borders,” Beek said. “When governments have enterprises set up in other countries the data that comes out of the consulate gets sniffed all the time by the host country. To be able to get it off the ground and secure is extremely important.”