Google has a new sibling in cybersecurity company Chronicle, the latest product of Alphabet's moonshot factory simply known as X.
X characterizes moonshot projects as the intersection of a big problem, a radical solution, and breakthrough technology. Will Chronicle live up to that definition?
Alphabet's Chronicle: What Does It Offer?
Stephen Gillett, the previous COO of Symantec who moved to X from Google Ventures, introduced Chronicle through an official blog post as its inaugural CEO.
Chronicle will launch with two services being offered, namely a security intelligence and analytics platform that caters to enterprises, and the online malware and virus scanner VirusTotal that Google purchased back in 2012.
According to Gillett, the security teams of enterprises are often not enough to serve as adequate protection against the growing number of cybersecurity threats. Chronicle's goal is simple, and that is to significantly increase the speed and impact of the work done by security teams through a platform that makes things easier, faster, and more cost-effective.
However, Chronicle's products don't sound much like what other moonshots offer, especially those born out of X. The new cybersecurity company, however, certainly still has something up its sleeve.
"We'll share more on the technology and what differentiates it at a later date," said Gillett to reporters.
Astro Teller, the Captain of Moonshots for X, provided a glimpse of what may come in the future for Chronicle to deserve its moonshot status. According to Teller, in an official X blog post, the "real moonshot" for Chronicle, which is still several years away, is to predict and deflect cyberattacks before hackers are able to infiltrate their targeted networks.
Teller then added that the digital world is in need of its own immune system that will work just like that of the human body.
"What if we could find a way to do the same kind of real-time adaptation to emerging cybersecurity threats to keep companies safe?" Teller muses.
Other X Projects By Alphabet
Chronicle is far from being the first X project. Two of the division's most popular products are Waymo, focused on self-driving technology, and Project Loon, which specializes in internet-beaming balloons.
Waymo is currently locked in a legal battle with Uber over allegedly stolen trade secrets related to its autonomous vehicle technology. The division, meanwhile, is still hard at work on its self-driving cars, with testing recently expanding into the Metro Atlanta area.
Project Loon, meanwhile, provided internet connectivity to hurricane-struck Puerto Rico in November through its high-flying balloons. More than 100,000 people from Puerto Rico were able to take advantage of the technology and access the internet, enabling communications and emergency services.
