December 14, 2022 • 32 mins
SNC is not the only place innovating to secure our critical infrastructure and to help society adapt to the growing Internet of Things. In this episode, Steve Ryan from Anterix addresses a wide range of topics, including resilient technology, threats to broadband and the role of collaboration in keeping our communities safe and running.
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Episode Transcript
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Ariel Stenger (00:00):
Hello and welcome to this episode of You Got
Hacked, a podcast produced bySierra Nevada Corporation's
cybersecurity team. On You GotHacked, we focus on
cybersecurity issues, currentevents and technology solutions
specific to protectingOperational Technology at the
endpoint to make you, yourfamily and your community
smarter, safer and more securefrom the ever evolving cyber
(00:22):
threat landscape. I'm your host,Ariel Stenger.
Smart cities and the need for asecure, sustainable urban
development has exposed avariety of cybersecurity
vulnerabilities in our existingcritical infrastructure systems.
In the US, our current power,water and gas systems are
nowhere even close to thetechnical prowess of our cell
(00:43):
phones or, or laptops. And theydepend on these outdated and
even completely offline systemsin order to function. So the
threat of a cyber attack,natural disaster or just a human
accident could render ourcritical infrastructure useless
in a matter of seconds. Sotoday, I'm excited to chat with
Steve Ryan, the Product Directorhere at Anterix. And we're going
(01:05):
to talk about grid monetization,specifically, and explore how
broadband has the potential totransform the industry. So to
get started, Steve, thank you somuch for taking the time out of
your busy day today to chat withus. Could you just give us a
quick introduction about who youare and how you found yourself
working at Anterix to kind oftake up the mission to secure
(01:28):
and modernize criticalinfrastructure?
Steve Ryan (01:30):
Absolutely. Thank you, Ariel, it's, thank you also
for having me here today. It'sgreat to have this conversation
with you. As you said, I'm amember of the product team at
Anterix. I also lead our AnterixActive Ecosystem, that's a group
of over 75 technology companiesthat are all really dedicated to
(01:51):
helping utilities and criticalinfrastructure succeed with
building, deploying, operatingand managing their private
networks, as well as reallygetting the value off of those
networks, which really comesfrom the solutions that are
spread across it. We're veryproud to have Binary Armor as a
(02:13):
member of that Anterixecosystem, and also as the
member of our first collective,security collective, so one of
six members that are reallysolving a key industry problem
and challenge, which issecurity.
Ariel Stenger (02:33):
Thank you. Yeah, we, we were super excited. And
we are super excited. Early on,I know, we've been talking for
months, you know, going back andforth and collaborating and
brainstorming and kind of seeinghow this whole, this whole
initiative really would unfold.So, so we're, we're really
thrilled to be part of thissecurity ecosystem.
Steve Ryan (02:52):
I suppose I should also answer your question,
which...
Ariel Stenger (02:55):
Ya, how did you get here.
Steve Ryan (02:56):
Who am I and how did I get here? So, so I think I've
been, I've been lucky, I wouldsay to have had a career that's
been spent in some of the mosttransformational technology and
playing a small role in bringingthat to life. So, I was part of
(03:21):
the team back at the old Nextel,who launched mobile data, and
ran mobile...remember Nextel,anyone? You know, who, who
really, you know, we've launchedmobile data, you know, evolved
it, really brought it to marketand saw it just really start to
(03:42):
change people's lives. And now,I think if you're holding a
mobile phone, you don't have tothink about it, right? It's,
it's just natural. You know,it's, in fact, you probably, I
think there was a, I think ourbig win early on was there was a
time when when people wouldrather go to, go to work without
(04:02):
their keys than without theirphone.
Ariel Stenger (04:05):
I think that's still the case.
Steve Ryan (04:08):
So, so, you know, did that for a number of years,
also, then worked at NextelInternational, really bringing
the same technologies in 3 and4G to the Latin, five countries
in the Latin American market.And then, after all of that, did
several years in IoT consultingand so as I was in IoT
(04:31):
consulting, you know, discoveredthis huge opportunity around
what's called the industrialInternet of Things, and seeing
how that could really transformvery traditional businesses, but
really change the dynamics ofhow they operate, where they
gain efficiencies, and reallyhow they run their business. And
(04:56):
I would say within that oneindustry really stood out as one
that needs a, that has a clearneed and opportunity around
those technologies, and that'sthe the utility space. And so
that's, that's really how I cameacross Anterix. Anterix is a
different type of wirelesscompany. Anterix does not
(05:19):
operate a network. What we do iswe leased spectrum, we lease it
on a county by county basis,across the nation to utilities,
to other critical infrastructurecompanies, who want, to allow
them to build their own privatenetworks, to operate their
business on a private networkrather than a commercial
(05:43):
network, or pull togethermultiple networks to to create solutions.
Ariel Stenger (05:48):
So the benefits of a private network include
specifically how reliable it isand how secure it is. The way
that that's generallyestablished or really promoted
is through kind of being agatekeeper. What you're doing is
you're allowing only authorizedtraffic in and only authorized
traffic out. And that evenincludes an extends to the
(06:09):
devices that are on a network atany given point. You can modify
what, what is allowed and whatis not allowed at any given
point. And that's different thana public network where you're
beholden to, to what alreadyexists there, and what rules
govern.
Steve Ryan (06:24):
So these are wide area networks that cover
multiple counties, usually. AndAnterix is, you know, one of the
key opportunities or the keyspectrum plays available to
support those elements.
Ariel Stenger (06:41):
Absolutely. So it sounds like you have had a
career of connecting people. Imean, you know, digitally,
virtually, connecting folks whonecessarily like, I mean Latin
America and the US, worldly, theindustrial world, connecting
people, would you say that'sfair?
Steve Ryan (06:57):
Well, I would say it's, I would say, it's fair. I
think it's, it's been somewhatdiverse in that I've gone from
entertaining people withringtones and wallpapers and all
those things that that weremember from long ago, to
really this is a very differentarea, and that this is really
(07:18):
solving the problems of keybusinesses. But the impacts, I
think, can be much greater onan, on an overall impact in
people's lives.
Ariel Stenger (07:31):
Absolutely, that is, I mean, that's, that's so
great to hear. I wonder, I'vekind of gotten in the habit of
asking, folks, if this career,in this career path that you
ended up on, was the career paththat you kind of wanted to,
wanted to start on way back whenyou know, you're 10 years old,
running around rotary phone downthe street that you have to
(07:51):
share with a bunch of folks andbe home by dark kind of thing.
What what did what did littleSteve want to be when he grew
up?
Steve Ryan (07:59):
When I was a kid? When I was a kid, I wanted to be
an adult.
But I think when I was young, and a lot of kids, my
Ariel Stenger (08:07):
Oh no!
generation wanted to be anastronaut. We're, you know,
amazed by the space program, youknow, just really fired our
curiosity and sense of adventureand pioneering. And so when I
was real little I think thatthat was, that was the key thing
(08:31):
to be. That or Evel Knievel
A roll of the dice at that point.
Steve Ryan (08:36):
Yes, but but as I got a little bit older and
That's wonderful. Well, thankyou. And I'm sorry that you're
started getting into my collegeyears, my family is all
involved, are primarily involvedin public service in one way or
another. So a lot of police andfiremen and women, as well as a
lot of politicians and peoplethat, basically serving their
(08:59):
communities. So that sort ofsteered me as I went to college
into studying Political Scienceand Policy Studies, and, and,
and looking at the impact wecould have on people's lives, I
suppose. How I got to productmanagement from that was a bit
of a stretch. But I think thatthe same motivations, the
(09:23):
opportunity to have an impact, adent in the world as Steve Jobs
called it, I think was, probablygave me that calling.
not an astronaut or Evel Knievelright now, but I think the work
you're doing is is reallyimportant.
I have a lot fewer broken bonesas a result.
Ariel Stenger (09:47):
Your parents are probably relieved, a little.
Steve Ryan (09:49):
Yes.
Ariel Stenger (09:51):
So let's start with kind of the mission of
Anterix. Lay, lay somegroundwork and then I don't want
to come back to your dream ofbeing an astronaut and talk
about how space fits into thiswhole active ecosystem and
Anterix and broadband andinterconnectivity. So first, I
mean, the mission of Anterix isto provide transformative
(10:11):
broadband solutions for criticalinfrastructure industries, and
enterprises, including nextgeneration communications
platforms. How does that work?You mentioned briefly at the
beginning about, about leasingbroadband, but kind of just kind
of walk us through how yousatisfy that mission at Anterix.
Steve Ryan (10:29):
Yeah, so. So we provide spectrum. So Anterix,
has three by three megahertz ofspectrum in the 900 megahertz
range. And we have that acrossthe US, Alaska, Hawaii, US
territories. We make thatavailable on a county by county
basis for utilities, andcritical infrastructure,
(10:54):
companies to lease from us.Those companies then will will
lease spectrum to cover aspecific area in which they
operate, and which they have aneed, and will build their own
private networks, operate thosenetworks and run their
businesses using those networksas an alternative to say, a
(11:17):
commercial network or buildingyour own mesh network, or
something along those lines. Andin some cases, it may even be
complementary to those thoseother networks. This way, you
know, our spectrum is usedthrough, for LTE and 3G PP
(11:39):
connectivity, so it does have anevolutionary path to go from 4G
to 5G.
Ariel Stenger (11:45):
You answered my question even.
Steve Ryan (11:47):
Which makes it very forward compatible. And because
it is a worldwide standard,there is a strong ecosystem that
sits behind it. That ensuresthat if you're making a decision
to purchase or to lease ourspectrum, the network you build
will support the use cases and,and the solutions that you want
(12:10):
to see on.
Ariel Stenger (12:12):
Excellent, so, so I'm wondering, you mentioned
kind of leasing and beingorganized on a county by county
basis and then people can kindof customize their use case
based on whatever their businessneeds are. But I also noticed
that you guys offer somethingcalled Experimental Licenses.
And it sounds like an excitingopportunity from someone who,
(12:34):
you know, would love to justexperiment with a license on 900
megahertz connectivity. But howdid that, how did that idea come
about? And kind of what usecases are you seeing pop up on
those experimental licenses? Soan experimental license in this
context is a business practice.What it's designed to do is
(12:54):
allow potential customers to tryout a license without needing to
purchase at scale, to see ifit's worth it for them to make
that investment for their ownprivate network. Generally, you
see this with experimental orsomething that is new on the
market and has a very highceiling.
Steve Ryan (13:12):
Sure, well, experimental licenses are
actually not something that weoffer, but facilitate so the FCC
makes those experimentallicenses available. And they've
been a great way, as we, youknow, we're going through the
process to gain FCC approval, touse our spectrum and even
(13:33):
thereafter, it's been a greatway for a utility or another
customer to set up a trialnetwork, test the key use cases
that they want to see tested andreally make an evaluation. It is
no small investment to build aprivate network, to operate it.
(13:55):
Spectrum is one slice of a muchlarger pie, when you're looking
at the capital investment andeven the operations involved in,
in, in that decision. So, so itmakes a lot of sense that
customers want to make sure thatwhen they make that decision,
(14:18):
they're making a great one. Andso those those experimental
licenses are one element. Wealso have the ability to
demonstrate services andsolutions, with our, within our
own labs, as well as we have inthat Anterix active ecosystem
(14:40):
that I mentioned, which reallybrings together companies that
have placed focus on supportingour customers in their private
network decision. So you haveeverything in that ecosystem.
You have everything from thelarge infrastructure providers
for RAN. So, Nokia, Motorola,Ericsson, to, to consulting
(15:07):
companies and engineeringcompanies that helped build and
deploy the network, to a numberof companies that offer the the
key devices that run on thenetwork, to all on to the end
solutions that are the industryspecific solutions. That is
really where the value comesfrom.
Ariel Stenger (15:28):
So the ecosystem program is really designed to be
a soup to nuts, start to finishone stop shop, basically, for a
potential business orgovernment, local government
municipality that wants to movetheir network to broadband and
also make everythinginterconnected, related to their
industrial IoT.
Steve Ryan (15:48):
That's absolutely the goal. So you know, we're
not, we don't view ourselves assimply engaging in a spectrum
transaction, and then going awayfor the 20 or 30 years that the
lease would would take, what wewant to do is, is really stand
behind that promise that we makewith the spectrum and ensure
(16:12):
that our customers aresuccessful. So we lean very
heavily on our ecosystem andlook for opportunities with our
membership, to bring value tothe customers. We'll look for,
we'll continue to look for otherways to ensure that we provide a
level of service that, thathelps our end customers succeed.
Ariel Stenger (16:32):
That's wonderful to hear. And I know you
mentioned just before that, itis a massive investment and like
this decision is not one that'sto be taken lightly, and
providing value and support andinfrastructure, I wonder if you
could just share a little bitabout sort of the cyber threats
and risks that you see impactingbroadband, and then also kind of
(16:53):
how the cybersecurity Collectiveis meant to address some of
those.
Steve Ryan (17:00):
Right. Well, you know, and I'm certainly not the
security expert. That's why wewe bring in companies like
yours, to, to help us out and tohelp bring those solutions to
our customers. But I can tellyou, you know, what our
customers are saying. So, youknow, in terms of, you know, our
(17:21):
customers are really telling us,right, they're challenged,
they're exposed, and they're notfully prepared for everything
that could be thrown at themfrom a security standpoint. So
just tapping into a few, numberof surveys that have been done
in this space. And here's whereI get to quote statistics, I
(17:43):
guess, you know, Black andVeatch, which is an engineering
firm, for the industry, they doa survey every year, their
respondents have come back andsaid that, that security is the
number two most challengingissue facing the utility
industry today. When you whenyou then take that and look at
(18:08):
distribution and automation, soreally, which is really the the
network from where the power isgenerated to where it gets to
your home. That then becomestheir number one issue in that
area. So it's, it's really topof mind for a lot of these
companies. I think, you know,your company specializes in, in,
(18:34):
on the OT side. OT is reallywhat's distributed across those
networks. We all tend to thinkor usually tend to think of
cybersecurity as addressing theIT side, but 60% of the attacks
last year, hit OT as well as IT.So it's, and I think the other
(18:56):
thing to say is that threatlandscape on those networks,
these are a lot of devices thatwere not built with security in
mind. So it's a big issue. 56%of utilities in 2019 faced a
cyber attack. In that same samesurvey, 54% said they expected
(19:20):
one of the following year. So 2%somehow dropped out and became
more confident. But I think, youknow, the bottom line is, you
know, this is not to be takenlightly. And and then in terms
of preparation, you know, fewerthan 50% of the respondents
would say, we're significantlyor very confident that we're
(19:44):
prepared and that ourinfrastructure is prepared for
the security threats that weface. And only 26% feel very
prepared on those, on thosefield area networks that we
talked about, the thatdistribution network.
Ariel Stenger (20:04):
You and I share this background in, for national
security and hearing thosestatistics just more, just
further reiterates really, whyit is that we're doing what
we're doing.
Steve Ryan (20:16):
It's key. And I think the other side of threats,
as as I think we talked aboutbefore the call, right is, is
the rise of foreign actors andthe increased threat, we, I
think it's been widely reportedthat Russia has been able to
hack into a lot of our utilitiestoday. They haven't done much
(20:38):
when they've been in there,except to perhaps leave a
calling card. And that's, Ithink, partially because of the
threat of response and otherthings like that. And partially
because our utilities are makingtheir internal security better
and better each day. But in a,in a heightened, more tense
(21:00):
world, you know, they couldperform more malicious attacks,
or at least attempt to. So weneed to be prepared.
Ariel Stenger (21:08):
We talked about a little red button, you know, and
everybody has that connotationand the association with it. But
what happens really, when, whenyou flip a switch, and the
lights are off, and they're notcoming back on anytime soon, and
how long do you have powergeneration and things in the
background? But I digress. Theseare, these are things that keep
(21:31):
me up at night. And I just, Ithink about a lot related to our
OT work with Binary Armor. Butone other thing I kind of wanted
to ask you, and I was inspiredbecause you you know you wanted
to be an astronaut when you werea kid, is how do satellites kind
of play into the interconnectedbroadband and building this
strong foundation forinterconnectivity and access?
(21:54):
Where does the satellite play incoast to coast sort of solution?
Absolutely. That's so interesting. And, you
Steve Ryan (21:58):
Well, so I think one, you know, one aspect of
satellite is the ability toprovide some backup
know, it's, it's, I saw that theword Anterix means to build a
conductivity. So well, you know,while customers are building
networks on 900, there's aconcern about resilient,
strong foundation. And, andthinking about, thinking through
resiliency. So what happens if,you know, my tower goes down or
(22:20):
I have, otherwise have some,some challenges. So we look for
the resiliency all the waythrough to we need to have
multiple ways to make sure thatthey have that resiliency
available. One of the one of themembers of our ecosystem,
satellite support, so thatthere's never a down day and
Cobham, provides satelliteservices and satellite backup
just for that instance. So ifyou're out in a remote area, you
(22:42):
your connectivity is neverjeopardized, honestly, like
know, utility, sees the value ofinvesting and putting their
their private network out there,but if something were to happen,
really, to me just speaks tothat transformative broadband
there may not be a commercialnetwork to fall back to. So
satellite is a as a fallback isa great thing. And and then of
solution mission statement thatyou have from the very
(23:03):
course, obviously, satellitessupport our GPS that we all take
for granted as well. Right? So...
beginning. So yeah, I mean, doyou guys talk internally, like
Well, first of all, I have to praise you on your
do you guys like, can you giveus some hot gossip here? Is
(23:28):
Anterix, do you guys talk aboutthe origin of the name Anterix
and the mission statement andstuff because it resonates to me
(23:48):
on the, on the other side ofsort of, of, the stage here?
grasp of the Latin language.
Ariel Stenger (24:05):
No, that was that's on your website. I found
that.
Steve Ryan (24:07):
Okay, okay. Yeah. So, so, Anterix, is a company
Ariel Stenger (24:08):
Yeah.
that's been around actually for,for several years, several
decades, in fact, as, first aspdvWireless, a company that
provided mission-critical pushto talk or regular push to talk
solutions to a number ofcompanies. You know, back I
(24:32):
think around 2016, the companypivoted and said, here's this,
here's this critical opportunityin order to help key critical
infrastructure industries. Wehave a visionary founder, Morgan
O'Brien, the same person thatfounded Nextel, who really,
(24:54):
really can see around cornersas, a, great expertise on
finding underutilized spectrumand repurposing it for, for,
about very valuable reasons. So,so I'd say that, you know, that,
the history of sort of thebranding and the and the brand
(25:15):
exercise, but ultimately, thefoundation really fits, right?
Steve Ryan (25:18):
But that the path is happy most of the time. It's an
It's the foundational networkthat a utility needs or that an
end customer needs to run theirbusiness. But then when you look
at things like resilience,right, so, there's a difference
between reliability andresilience in the utility space.
(25:42):
Reliability, I flick the switch,my light comes on. Right, so
that's the happy path.
incredible thing to think abouthow effectively utilities are
able to support that.Resilience, in my mind is what
(26:06):
happens when things go wrong.And how quickly do you recover
from from a threat or an outageor anything along those lines.
And so having the, having theunderlying network, having the
solutions that run on thenetwork, having extensive
(26:26):
security solutions, are allthings that help you address
those threats and help thatnetwork bounce back having
visibility across the network.So, so it can't be understated,
how valuable it is to to reallyhave a private network and have
a lot of these greatpartnerships and solutions that
(26:50):
that bring value to the space.
Ariel Stenger (26:53):
Wonderful. Thank you. So I have one last question
for you. And it's just related,you know, to kind of your growth
and your trajectory and yourtime at Anterix. I wonder, could
you share what is somethingthat's interesting, or, or
something that surprised youthat you've learned since being
on the Anterix team and, andreally making this initiative to
(27:14):
have the ecosystem and asecurity collective as part of
that?
Steve Ryan (27:18):
Yeah, well, I mean, it's, you know, you can always
marvel over the technology andall the new technology that's
coming along. I've certainlylearned a tremendous amount
about some of the industriesthat we support. But at the end
of the day, I think it's people,right, it's, and what's really
(27:39):
surprised and impressed me isreally the growing enthusiasm we
see, of, people across the boardand companies across the board,
to collaborate, to supportYou're seeing utilities are, and
this is important, right? Thisis, this is truly our nation's
infrastructure that, that we'reprotecting here. And so
(28:04):
utilities are putting, you know,serious focus and resources on
to really figuring out thisprivate, network opportunity.
And they're, they're pulling in,you know, more engineers that,
you know, from mobile operators,and, and, you know, really, you
know, putting a lot of energytime, resources into, into
(28:25):
making these moves. And this isnot something that happens
overnight; you don't wake up onMonday and say, you know, by the
end of the week, let's have a,let's have a full network, and
let's, you know, let's go make arake case and invest all this
money. It's, it's a, it's a verydeliberate process. But you can
also see with the rapid growthof all the companies that are,
(28:49):
that are coming to the space,space, and collaborating in the
space. So you know, ourecosystem launched back in May.
And we launched with 37 members,we're now up approaching 80
members, and, and, you know, wedon't have time to chase down
(29:09):
and pull people in. So most ofthose members are really coming
to us on their own. You see thediversity across the board, of,
of the membership, and andthey're highly engaged, that.
So, so I'm very excited to seesort of how that ecosystem group
evolves. And where we reallystart providing some value is,
(29:32):
is where we work together. Andthen finally, I think a great
example is, is, thecollaboration within the
security collective. So as Isaid before, the security
collected is our firstcollective and the collect,
concept of the collective is,let's take an industry
challenge. Let's bring togethersome of the smartest companies
(29:52):
we can find. And let's have themwork together with us to help
our customers addressed the,those challenges. And this is,
this is a great podcast, I alsogonna, if you don't mind make an
endorsement of another webcast,at least, that's the Anterix
(30:14):
Industry Insights webcast we hadabout two weeks ago with, with,
representatives of five of thesix members of our Security
Collective program, and I thinkthe one thing that really
impressed me, and if you watchthat video, you can see not only
the fact that each member ofthat Security Collective is
(30:37):
bringing something different andunique to the table. But how,
even over the course of thiscall, you could see them
connecting all the dots, andreally painting a picture, I
think, as to how these solutionscan all work together. It's not
it doesn't have to be acompetitive situation. It's
actually a, you know, very mucha collaborative experience. And
(31:02):
that, to me, is very gratifying.And I would have to admit a bit
of a pleasant surprise.
Ariel Stenger (31:11):
Well, I'm really happy to hear that because I
agree. I, I was able to catchthe Industry Insights webcast.
And, and, it was interesting, itwas so beautiful to see so many
different, different sides ofthe same coin, if you could, you
know, you think it's two, youthink it's just very linear. And
(31:31):
then it's not it's just, it,collaboration really will I
think I agree with you willbring together the most
interconnected smart cities withsecurity broadly across the
country. So, so I appreciate thework. And I appreciate your your
candor and your time today.Thank you so much for making
this happen today.
Steve Ryan (31:52):
Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be on your
podcast, and certainly to workwith Binary Armor. So thank you,
Ariel for your time today aswell.
Ariel Stenger (32:02):
Thanks, Steve.
Steve Ryan (32:03):
Thank you.
Ariel Stenger (32:04):
Thank you for listening to this episode of You
Got Hacked, brought to you bySierra Nevada Corporation's
Cyber Team. For more informationyou can visit us online at
sncorp.com. That's sncorp.com. Aspecial thank you to our guests
and, of course, all of you, ourlisteners. I'm Ariel Stenger,
see you next time.
Hello and welcome to this episode of You Got
Hacked, a podcast produced bySierra Nevada Corporation's
cybersecurity team. On You GotHacked, we focus on
cybersecurity issues, currentevents and technology solutions
specific to protectingOperational Technology at the
endpoint to make you, yourfamily and your community
smarter, safer and more securefrom the ever evolving cyber
(00:22):
threat landscape. I'm your host,Ariel Stenger.
Smart cities and the need for asecure, sustainable urban
development has exposed avariety of cybersecurity
vulnerabilities in our existingcritical infrastructure systems.
In the US, our current power,water and gas systems are
nowhere even close to thetechnical prowess of our cell
(00:43):
phones or, or laptops. And theydepend on these outdated and
even completely offline systemsin order to function. So the
threat of a cyber attack,natural disaster or just a human
accident could render ourcritical infrastructure useless
in a matter of seconds. Sotoday, I'm excited to chat with
Steve Ryan, the Product Directorhere at Anterix. And we're going
(01:05):
to talk about grid monetization,specifically, and explore how
broadband has the potential totransform the industry. So to
get started, Steve, thank you somuch for taking the time out of
your busy day today to chat withus. Could you just give us a
quick introduction about who youare and how you found yourself
working at Anterix to kind oftake up the mission to secure
(01:28):
and modernize criticalinfrastructure?
Steve Ryan (01:30):
Absolutely. Thank you, Ariel, it's, thank you also
for having me here today. It'sgreat to have this conversation
with you. As you said, I'm amember of the product team at
Anterix. I also lead our AnterixActive Ecosystem, that's a group
of over 75 technology companiesthat are all really dedicated to
(01:51):
helping utilities and criticalinfrastructure succeed with
building, deploying, operatingand managing their private
networks, as well as reallygetting the value off of those
networks, which really comesfrom the solutions that are
spread across it. We're veryproud to have Binary Armor as a
(02:13):
member of that Anterixecosystem, and also as the
member of our first collective,security collective, so one of
six members that are reallysolving a key industry problem
and challenge, which issecurity.
Ariel Stenger (02:33):
Thank you. Yeah, we, we were super excited. And
we are super excited. Early on,I know, we've been talking for
months, you know, going back andforth and collaborating and
brainstorming and kind of seeinghow this whole, this whole
initiative really would unfold.So, so we're, we're really
thrilled to be part of thissecurity ecosystem.
Steve Ryan (02:52):
I suppose I should also answer your question,
which...
Ariel Stenger (02:55):
Ya, how did you get here.
Steve Ryan (02:56):
Who am I and how did I get here? So, so I think I've
been, I've been lucky, I wouldsay to have had a career that's
been spent in some of the mosttransformational technology and
playing a small role in bringingthat to life. So, I was part of
(03:21):
the team back at the old Nextel,who launched mobile data, and
ran mobile...remember Nextel,anyone? You know, who, who
really, you know, we've launchedmobile data, you know, evolved
it, really brought it to marketand saw it just really start to
(03:42):
change people's lives. And now,I think if you're holding a
mobile phone, you don't have tothink about it, right? It's,
it's just natural. You know,it's, in fact, you probably, I
think there was a, I think ourbig win early on was there was a
time when when people wouldrather go to, go to work without
(04:02):
their keys than without theirphone.
Ariel Stenger (04:05):
I think that's still the case.
Steve Ryan (04:08):
So, so, you know, did that for a number of years,
also, then worked at NextelInternational, really bringing
the same technologies in 3 and4G to the Latin, five countries
in the Latin American market.And then, after all of that, did
several years in IoT consultingand so as I was in IoT
(04:31):
consulting, you know, discoveredthis huge opportunity around
what's called the industrialInternet of Things, and seeing
how that could really transformvery traditional businesses, but
really change the dynamics ofhow they operate, where they
gain efficiencies, and reallyhow they run their business. And
(04:56):
I would say within that oneindustry really stood out as one
that needs a, that has a clearneed and opportunity around
those technologies, and that'sthe the utility space. And so
that's, that's really how I cameacross Anterix. Anterix is a
different type of wirelesscompany. Anterix does not
(05:19):
operate a network. What we do iswe leased spectrum, we lease it
on a county by county basis,across the nation to utilities,
to other critical infrastructurecompanies, who want, to allow
them to build their own privatenetworks, to operate their
business on a private networkrather than a commercial
(05:43):
network, or pull togethermultiple networks to to create solutions.
Ariel Stenger (05:48):
So the benefits of a private network include
specifically how reliable it isand how secure it is. The way
that that's generallyestablished or really promoted
is through kind of being agatekeeper. What you're doing is
you're allowing only authorizedtraffic in and only authorized
traffic out. And that evenincludes an extends to the
(06:09):
devices that are on a network atany given point. You can modify
what, what is allowed and whatis not allowed at any given
point. And that's different thana public network where you're
beholden to, to what alreadyexists there, and what rules
govern.
Steve Ryan (06:24):
So these are wide area networks that cover
multiple counties, usually. AndAnterix is, you know, one of the
key opportunities or the keyspectrum plays available to
support those elements.
Ariel Stenger (06:41):
Absolutely. So it sounds like you have had a
career of connecting people. Imean, you know, digitally,
virtually, connecting folks whonecessarily like, I mean Latin
America and the US, worldly, theindustrial world, connecting
people, would you say that'sfair?
Steve Ryan (06:57):
Well, I would say it's, I would say, it's fair. I
think it's, it's been somewhatdiverse in that I've gone from
entertaining people withringtones and wallpapers and all
those things that that weremember from long ago, to
really this is a very differentarea, and that this is really
(07:18):
solving the problems of keybusinesses. But the impacts, I
think, can be much greater onan, on an overall impact in
people's lives.
Ariel Stenger (07:31):
Absolutely, that is, I mean, that's, that's so
great to hear. I wonder, I'vekind of gotten in the habit of
asking, folks, if this career,in this career path that you
ended up on, was the career paththat you kind of wanted to,
wanted to start on way back whenyou know, you're 10 years old,
running around rotary phone downthe street that you have to
(07:51):
share with a bunch of folks andbe home by dark kind of thing.
What what did what did littleSteve want to be when he grew
up?
Steve Ryan (07:59):
When I was a kid? When I was a kid, I wanted to be
an adult.
But I think when I was young, and a lot of kids, my
Ariel Stenger (08:07):
Oh no!
generation wanted to be anastronaut. We're, you know,
amazed by the space program, youknow, just really fired our
curiosity and sense of adventureand pioneering. And so when I
was real little I think thatthat was, that was the key thing
(08:31):
to be. That or Evel Knievel
A roll of the dice at that point.
Steve Ryan (08:36):
Yes, but but as I got a little bit older and
That's wonderful. Well, thankyou. And I'm sorry that you're
started getting into my collegeyears, my family is all
involved, are primarily involvedin public service in one way or
another. So a lot of police andfiremen and women, as well as a
lot of politicians and peoplethat, basically serving their
(08:59):
communities. So that sort ofsteered me as I went to college
into studying Political Scienceand Policy Studies, and, and,
and looking at the impact wecould have on people's lives, I
suppose. How I got to productmanagement from that was a bit
of a stretch. But I think thatthe same motivations, the
(09:23):
opportunity to have an impact, adent in the world as Steve Jobs
called it, I think was, probablygave me that calling.
not an astronaut or Evel Knievelright now, but I think the work
you're doing is is reallyimportant.
I have a lot fewer broken bonesas a result.
Ariel Stenger (09:47):
Your parents are probably relieved, a little.
Steve Ryan (09:49):
Yes.
Ariel Stenger (09:51):
So let's start with kind of the mission of
Anterix. Lay, lay somegroundwork and then I don't want
to come back to your dream ofbeing an astronaut and talk
about how space fits into thiswhole active ecosystem and
Anterix and broadband andinterconnectivity. So first, I
mean, the mission of Anterix isto provide transformative
(10:11):
broadband solutions for criticalinfrastructure industries, and
enterprises, including nextgeneration communications
platforms. How does that work?You mentioned briefly at the
beginning about, about leasingbroadband, but kind of just kind
of walk us through how yousatisfy that mission at Anterix.
Steve Ryan (10:29):
Yeah, so. So we provide spectrum. So Anterix,
has three by three megahertz ofspectrum in the 900 megahertz
range. And we have that acrossthe US, Alaska, Hawaii, US
territories. We make thatavailable on a county by county
basis for utilities, andcritical infrastructure,
(10:54):
companies to lease from us.Those companies then will will
lease spectrum to cover aspecific area in which they
operate, and which they have aneed, and will build their own
private networks, operate thosenetworks and run their
businesses using those networksas an alternative to say, a
(11:17):
commercial network or buildingyour own mesh network, or
something along those lines. Andin some cases, it may even be
complementary to those thoseother networks. This way, you
know, our spectrum is usedthrough, for LTE and 3G PP
(11:39):
connectivity, so it does have anevolutionary path to go from 4G
to 5G.
Ariel Stenger (11:45):
You answered my question even.
Steve Ryan (11:47):
Which makes it very forward compatible. And because
it is a worldwide standard,there is a strong ecosystem that
sits behind it. That ensuresthat if you're making a decision
to purchase or to lease ourspectrum, the network you build
will support the use cases and,and the solutions that you want
(12:10):
to see on.
Ariel Stenger (12:12):
Excellent, so, so I'm wondering, you mentioned
kind of leasing and beingorganized on a county by county
basis and then people can kindof customize their use case
based on whatever their businessneeds are. But I also noticed
that you guys offer somethingcalled Experimental Licenses.
And it sounds like an excitingopportunity from someone who,
(12:34):
you know, would love to justexperiment with a license on 900
megahertz connectivity. But howdid that, how did that idea come
about? And kind of what usecases are you seeing pop up on
those experimental licenses? Soan experimental license in this
context is a business practice.What it's designed to do is
(12:54):
allow potential customers to tryout a license without needing to
purchase at scale, to see ifit's worth it for them to make
that investment for their ownprivate network. Generally, you
see this with experimental orsomething that is new on the
market and has a very highceiling.
Steve Ryan (13:12):
Sure, well, experimental licenses are
actually not something that weoffer, but facilitate so the FCC
makes those experimentallicenses available. And they've
been a great way, as we, youknow, we're going through the
process to gain FCC approval, touse our spectrum and even
(13:33):
thereafter, it's been a greatway for a utility or another
customer to set up a trialnetwork, test the key use cases
that they want to see tested andreally make an evaluation. It is
no small investment to build aprivate network, to operate it.
(13:55):
Spectrum is one slice of a muchlarger pie, when you're looking
at the capital investment andeven the operations involved in,
in, in that decision. So, so itmakes a lot of sense that
customers want to make sure thatwhen they make that decision,
(14:18):
they're making a great one. Andso those those experimental
licenses are one element. Wealso have the ability to
demonstrate services andsolutions, with our, within our
own labs, as well as we have inthat Anterix active ecosystem
(14:40):
that I mentioned, which reallybrings together companies that
have placed focus on supportingour customers in their private
network decision. So you haveeverything in that ecosystem.
You have everything from thelarge infrastructure providers
for RAN. So, Nokia, Motorola,Ericsson, to, to consulting
(15:07):
companies and engineeringcompanies that helped build and
deploy the network, to a numberof companies that offer the the
key devices that run on thenetwork, to all on to the end
solutions that are the industryspecific solutions. That is
really where the value comesfrom.
Ariel Stenger (15:28):
So the ecosystem program is really designed to be
a soup to nuts, start to finishone stop shop, basically, for a
potential business orgovernment, local government
municipality that wants to movetheir network to broadband and
also make everythinginterconnected, related to their
industrial IoT.
Steve Ryan (15:48):
That's absolutely the goal. So you know, we're
not, we don't view ourselves assimply engaging in a spectrum
transaction, and then going awayfor the 20 or 30 years that the
lease would would take, what wewant to do is, is really stand
behind that promise that we makewith the spectrum and ensure
(16:12):
that our customers aresuccessful. So we lean very
heavily on our ecosystem andlook for opportunities with our
membership, to bring value tothe customers. We'll look for,
we'll continue to look for otherways to ensure that we provide a
level of service that, thathelps our end customers succeed.
Ariel Stenger (16:32):
That's wonderful to hear. And I know you
mentioned just before that, itis a massive investment and like
this decision is not one that'sto be taken lightly, and
providing value and support andinfrastructure, I wonder if you
could just share a little bitabout sort of the cyber threats
and risks that you see impactingbroadband, and then also kind of
(16:53):
how the cybersecurity Collectiveis meant to address some of
those.
Steve Ryan (17:00):
Right. Well, you know, and I'm certainly not the
security expert. That's why wewe bring in companies like
yours, to, to help us out and tohelp bring those solutions to
our customers. But I can tellyou, you know, what our
customers are saying. So, youknow, in terms of, you know, our
(17:21):
customers are really telling us,right, they're challenged,
they're exposed, and they're notfully prepared for everything
that could be thrown at themfrom a security standpoint. So
just tapping into a few, numberof surveys that have been done
in this space. And here's whereI get to quote statistics, I
(17:43):
guess, you know, Black andVeatch, which is an engineering
firm, for the industry, they doa survey every year, their
respondents have come back andsaid that, that security is the
number two most challengingissue facing the utility
industry today. When you whenyou then take that and look at
(18:08):
distribution and automation, soreally, which is really the the
network from where the power isgenerated to where it gets to
your home. That then becomestheir number one issue in that
area. So it's, it's really topof mind for a lot of these
companies. I think, you know,your company specializes in, in,
(18:34):
on the OT side. OT is reallywhat's distributed across those
networks. We all tend to thinkor usually tend to think of
cybersecurity as addressing theIT side, but 60% of the attacks
last year, hit OT as well as IT.So it's, and I think the other
(18:56):
thing to say is that threatlandscape on those networks,
these are a lot of devices thatwere not built with security in
mind. So it's a big issue. 56%of utilities in 2019 faced a
cyber attack. In that same samesurvey, 54% said they expected
(19:20):
one of the following year. So 2%somehow dropped out and became
more confident. But I think, youknow, the bottom line is, you
know, this is not to be takenlightly. And and then in terms
of preparation, you know, fewerthan 50% of the respondents
would say, we're significantlyor very confident that we're
(19:44):
prepared and that ourinfrastructure is prepared for
the security threats that weface. And only 26% feel very
prepared on those, on thosefield area networks that we
talked about, the thatdistribution network.
Ariel Stenger (20:04):
You and I share this background in, for national
security and hearing thosestatistics just more, just
further reiterates really, whyit is that we're doing what
we're doing.
Steve Ryan (20:16):
It's key. And I think the other side of threats,
as as I think we talked aboutbefore the call, right is, is
the rise of foreign actors andthe increased threat, we, I
think it's been widely reportedthat Russia has been able to
hack into a lot of our utilitiestoday. They haven't done much
(20:38):
when they've been in there,except to perhaps leave a
calling card. And that's, Ithink, partially because of the
threat of response and otherthings like that. And partially
because our utilities are makingtheir internal security better
and better each day. But in a,in a heightened, more tense
(21:00):
world, you know, they couldperform more malicious attacks,
or at least attempt to. So weneed to be prepared.
Ariel Stenger (21:08):
We talked about a little red button, you know, and
everybody has that connotationand the association with it. But
what happens really, when, whenyou flip a switch, and the
lights are off, and they're notcoming back on anytime soon, and
how long do you have powergeneration and things in the
background? But I digress. Theseare, these are things that keep
(21:31):
me up at night. And I just, Ithink about a lot related to our
OT work with Binary Armor. Butone other thing I kind of wanted
to ask you, and I was inspiredbecause you you know you wanted
to be an astronaut when you werea kid, is how do satellites kind
of play into the interconnectedbroadband and building this
strong foundation forinterconnectivity and access?
(21:54):
Where does the satellite play incoast to coast sort of solution?
Absolutely. That's so interesting. And, you
Steve Ryan (21:58):
Well, so I think one, you know, one aspect of
satellite is the ability toprovide some backup
know, it's, it's, I saw that theword Anterix means to build a
conductivity. So well, you know,while customers are building
networks on 900, there's aconcern about resilient,
strong foundation. And, andthinking about, thinking through
resiliency. So what happens if,you know, my tower goes down or
(22:20):
I have, otherwise have some,some challenges. So we look for
the resiliency all the waythrough to we need to have
multiple ways to make sure thatthey have that resiliency
available. One of the one of themembers of our ecosystem,
satellite support, so thatthere's never a down day and
Cobham, provides satelliteservices and satellite backup
just for that instance. So ifyou're out in a remote area, you
(22:42):
your connectivity is neverjeopardized, honestly, like
know, utility, sees the value ofinvesting and putting their
their private network out there,but if something were to happen,
really, to me just speaks tothat transformative broadband
there may not be a commercialnetwork to fall back to. So
satellite is a as a fallback isa great thing. And and then of
solution mission statement thatyou have from the very
(23:03):
course, obviously, satellitessupport our GPS that we all take
for granted as well. Right? So...
beginning. So yeah, I mean, doyou guys talk internally, like
Well, first of all, I have to praise you on your
do you guys like, can you giveus some hot gossip here? Is
(23:28):
Anterix, do you guys talk aboutthe origin of the name Anterix
and the mission statement andstuff because it resonates to me
(23:48):
on the, on the other side ofsort of, of, the stage here?
grasp of the Latin language.
Ariel Stenger (24:05):
No, that was that's on your website. I found
that.
Steve Ryan (24:07):
Okay, okay. Yeah. So, so, Anterix, is a company
Ariel Stenger (24:08):
Yeah.
that's been around actually for,for several years, several
decades, in fact, as, first aspdvWireless, a company that
provided mission-critical pushto talk or regular push to talk
solutions to a number ofcompanies. You know, back I
(24:32):
think around 2016, the companypivoted and said, here's this,
here's this critical opportunityin order to help key critical
infrastructure industries. Wehave a visionary founder, Morgan
O'Brien, the same person thatfounded Nextel, who really,
(24:54):
really can see around cornersas, a, great expertise on
finding underutilized spectrumand repurposing it for, for,
about very valuable reasons. So,so I'd say that, you know, that,
the history of sort of thebranding and the and the brand
(25:15):
exercise, but ultimately, thefoundation really fits, right?
Steve Ryan (25:18):
But that the path is happy most of the time. It's an
It's the foundational networkthat a utility needs or that an
end customer needs to run theirbusiness. But then when you look
at things like resilience,right, so, there's a difference
between reliability andresilience in the utility space.
(25:42):
Reliability, I flick the switch,my light comes on. Right, so
that's the happy path.
incredible thing to think abouthow effectively utilities are
able to support that.Resilience, in my mind is what
(26:06):
happens when things go wrong.And how quickly do you recover
from from a threat or an outageor anything along those lines.
And so having the, having theunderlying network, having the
solutions that run on thenetwork, having extensive
(26:26):
security solutions, are allthings that help you address
those threats and help thatnetwork bounce back having
visibility across the network.So, so it can't be understated,
how valuable it is to to reallyhave a private network and have
a lot of these greatpartnerships and solutions that
(26:50):
that bring value to the space.
Ariel Stenger (26:53):
Wonderful. Thank you. So I have one last question
for you. And it's just related,you know, to kind of your growth
and your trajectory and yourtime at Anterix. I wonder, could
you share what is somethingthat's interesting, or, or
something that surprised youthat you've learned since being
on the Anterix team and, andreally making this initiative to
(27:14):
have the ecosystem and asecurity collective as part of
that?
Steve Ryan (27:18):
Yeah, well, I mean, it's, you know, you can always
marvel over the technology andall the new technology that's
coming along. I've certainlylearned a tremendous amount
about some of the industriesthat we support. But at the end
of the day, I think it's people,right, it's, and what's really
(27:39):
surprised and impressed me isreally the growing enthusiasm we
see, of, people across the boardand companies across the board,
to collaborate, to supportYou're seeing utilities are, and
this is important, right? Thisis, this is truly our nation's
infrastructure that, that we'reprotecting here. And so
(28:04):
utilities are putting, you know,serious focus and resources on
to really figuring out thisprivate, network opportunity.
And they're, they're pulling in,you know, more engineers that,
you know, from mobile operators,and, and, you know, really, you
know, putting a lot of energytime, resources into, into
(28:25):
making these moves. And this isnot something that happens
overnight; you don't wake up onMonday and say, you know, by the
end of the week, let's have a,let's have a full network, and
let's, you know, let's go make arake case and invest all this
money. It's, it's a, it's a verydeliberate process. But you can
also see with the rapid growthof all the companies that are,
(28:49):
that are coming to the space,space, and collaborating in the
space. So you know, ourecosystem launched back in May.
And we launched with 37 members,we're now up approaching 80
members, and, and, you know, wedon't have time to chase down
(29:09):
and pull people in. So most ofthose members are really coming
to us on their own. You see thediversity across the board, of,
of the membership, and andthey're highly engaged, that.
So, so I'm very excited to seesort of how that ecosystem group
evolves. And where we reallystart providing some value is,
(29:32):
is where we work together. Andthen finally, I think a great
example is, is, thecollaboration within the
security collective. So as Isaid before, the security
collected is our firstcollective and the collect,
concept of the collective is,let's take an industry
challenge. Let's bring togethersome of the smartest companies
(29:52):
we can find. And let's have themwork together with us to help
our customers addressed the,those challenges. And this is,
this is a great podcast, I alsogonna, if you don't mind make an
endorsement of another webcast,at least, that's the Anterix
(30:14):
Industry Insights webcast we hadabout two weeks ago with, with,
representatives of five of thesix members of our Security
Collective program, and I thinkthe one thing that really
impressed me, and if you watchthat video, you can see not only
the fact that each member ofthat Security Collective is
(30:37):
bringing something different andunique to the table. But how,
even over the course of thiscall, you could see them
connecting all the dots, andreally painting a picture, I
think, as to how these solutionscan all work together. It's not
it doesn't have to be acompetitive situation. It's
actually a, you know, very mucha collaborative experience. And
(31:02):
that, to me, is very gratifying.And I would have to admit a bit
of a pleasant surprise.
Ariel Stenger (31:11):
Well, I'm really happy to hear that because I
agree. I, I was able to catchthe Industry Insights webcast.
And, and, it was interesting, itwas so beautiful to see so many
different, different sides ofthe same coin, if you could, you
know, you think it's two, youthink it's just very linear. And
(31:31):
then it's not it's just, it,collaboration really will I
think I agree with you willbring together the most
interconnected smart cities withsecurity broadly across the
country. So, so I appreciate thework. And I appreciate your your
candor and your time today.Thank you so much for making
this happen today.
Steve Ryan (31:52):
Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be on your
podcast, and certainly to workwith Binary Armor. So thank you,
Ariel for your time today aswell.
Ariel Stenger (32:02):
Thanks, Steve.
Steve Ryan (32:03):
Thank you.
Ariel Stenger (32:04):
Thank you for listening to this episode of You
Got Hacked, brought to you bySierra Nevada Corporation's
Cyber Team. For more informationyou can visit us online at
sncorp.com. That's sncorp.com. Aspecial thank you to our guests
and, of course, all of you, ourlisteners. I'm Ariel Stenger,
see you next time.
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