With a new CEO in place, Sydney-based Mimir Networks has launched its cybersecurity product this year and already has two small internet service providers as customers.

Mimir was founded by cybersecurity veteran Jim DeLeskie, who previously founded Heimdall Networks. That company won Innovacorp’s 2014 I-3 Technology Startup Competition, taking home $225,000 in prize money.  

DeLeskie has since created Mimir, which is also focused on cybersecurity. This year, he hired Tara Milburn, who has worked in a range of businesses across the country, to head its operations. With the new team in place, the company is now selling its product to small and medium-sized businesses that need to protect themselves from cyber-criminals. Though the product is priced to be affordable to SMEs, Milburn emphasized in an interview it also has the capacity to reach larger clients.

“The development was done with scaling in mind,” she said in an interview. “We have no problem with scaling to larger companies because that’s where our founder came from.”

DeLeskie has worked for some of the world’s largest digital security companies and is an expert in the detection and mitigation of distributed denial-of-service, or DDOS, attacks. These attacks swamp an organization’s website and/or network with unwanted traffic, disabling all its online functions.

In January, DeLeskie learned that Milburn would be leaving her post with Nova Scotia Business Inc. and persuaded her to join Mimir. Milburn was new to the tech sector but had a wide range of business experience. She had previously held senior positions with the Vancouver Olympics organizing committee, the Vancouver Canucks and other sports organizations.

She began at Mimir as the head of business development, but soon moved to CEO, allowing DeLeskie to move over to Chief Technical Officer.

The Mimir product is able to detect and mitigate the impact of a DDOS, and can also be used for anomaly detection, or someone using a service in an unusual way, which could mean a system has been hacked. These are services provided by larger competitors but Mimir is priced so smaller companies can afford it.

With a staff of six people, Mimir is now focusing on sales in Canada and the U.S. While it has sold to two ISPs – one in the U.S. and one in Canada – it is targeting other sectors as well, including data centres, aerospace and defence, first nations and governments.

“Right now we’re concentrating on Canada and the U.S., but we’re open to looking at other countries,” said Milburn. “There could be some opportunities in Europe or Israel. … We have the benefit of Jim’s network because he’s quite well connected and respected and that will open some doors for us.”