Driving the Future of Cybersecurity with AI

TeliApp is an NJ-based firm founded in 2012 that delivers technology, IT, and cybersecurity services to government clients. Specifically, this means cloud migrations for email, data and VOIP, network engineering, installation and maintenance of wired and wireless networks, cybersecurity defense training and strategic oversight, and website development and content management for municipalities, public schools, public libraries, and sewerage authorities.

And that’s just their day job.

TeliApp’s real passion involves developing their own solutions for clients based on their experience working with them. Their team has been working on two passion projects, both designed to drastically improve productivity and shred costs.

The first is purchasing streamlining software to completely digitize a currently manual, paper-driven process. Government vendors know the trials and tribulations associated with responding to requests for qualifications or proposals. Filling out standardized forms that need to be signed, notarized, printed, copied, and then mailed or dropped off with the technical proposal is timeconsuming and expensive. Government vendors that respond to one-hundred or so requests annually can easily expect to spend over $10,000 in costs, which include but are not limited to paper, toner, postage, mileage, marketing folders, salaries, and more.

“It’s absolutely exhausting!” says Joshua Weiss, TeliApp’s CEO. “Our solution eliminates paper, toner, and time wasted both for government entities and vendors. I was extremely disappointed one year when I learned that several of our responses, while mailed well in advance with either overnight or two-day delivery, did not make it to their destinations in time. That translated to a tremendous opportunity lost. Our solution guarantees delivery. Munivendor (the project’s code name) may be the most boring idea we’ve ever had, but it will revolutionize the way purchasing is done in New Jersey.”

The second project is based on experience working in the cybersecurity side of technology. The project was born when it became clear that nefarious emails and network traffic continue to penetrate standard information security systems.“When I look at the email, it’s clear to me immediately that, no, this is not an actual police officer from your precinct asking to change her direct deposit information, and no, this is not a councilperson asking you to buy an Amazon gift card!” says Weiss. “Yet somehow, these emails are either not detected or are detected postdelivery only after the employee opened and read the email.”

Weiss explained that while humans have actual intelligence that enables learning from success and failure, the software does not.

Even artificial intelligence, which is a common industry term for machine learning software, does not have contextual learning capacity. “Ugh. When I hear people say ‘artificial intelligence,’ I cringe. At TeliApp, AI means actual intelligence. A real AI engine must be able to contextually learn both from success and failure, as would a human, to realize any real measure of productivity and efficiency.”

Years ago, TeliApp built such an AI engine developed to eliminate check fraud from banking systems. Prospects were excited but wanted to see it in action. TeliApp didn’t have a testable product because it needed to be built around the prospect’s software and data, which required access to systems only enabled with an active contract. This created a perpetual catch-22. “We had nebulous technology. It was like, we built a brain but not a body. Yeah, the brain is great. But it can’t do anything without the body. So we put the brain in stasis and moved on.”

TeliApp has been writing business logic designed to detect and quarantine nefarious incoming content to information systems as well as automated countermeasures for more advanced attacks for several years, based on their experiences with clients. Coupled with an instance of their AI engine, “This technology could exponentially and continuously improve its ability to detect, predict and eliminate incoming traffic with a high probability of nefarious intent,” says Weiss.

At TeliApp, AI means actual intelligence. A real AI engine must be able to contextually learn both from success and failure, as would a human, to realize any real measure of productivity and efficiency

And this time, there is no catch-22. “Using APIs provided by cloud service providers, we can test in the actual environment and demonstrate functionality to win contracts. When launched, it will be vastly superior to anything on the market, will make a positive impact on lives, and will bring us tremendous professional and personal satisfaction,” says Weiss. “We named the solution Mathainos, which means learn in Greek, and it will eliminate malicious cyber-activity developed by criminal actors. The fact that Mathainos includes math and AI was not lost on us.” TeliApp plans to release the Mathainos MVP alpha in 2024, the same year Weiss completes his Master of Science in Cybersecurity Operations & Leadership from the University of San Diego.

Maintaining its growth trajectory, TeliApp develops new relationships with more government clients in New Jersey. When asked what is the best benefit of working with TeliApp, Josh responded that “Clients always see smiles on our faces, a can-do attitude, and a professional demeanor. We believe the greatest skill we offer, aside from technical expertise, is problem-solving. While all technical teams plan to mitigate unforeseen circumstances that arise in any project, hiccups can and do happen. Rather than refer to them as problems, we consider them challenges, and we love challenges! Every challenge has a solution, and we are just as much a team of creative and out-of-the-box thinkers as we are a technical team. Challenges are met with meaningful ideas, relevant alternatives, and realistic strategies for timely resolution.”