When Lexumo, a Boston-area cybersecurity company that protects automated machinery, needed an accessible user interface to complement its sophisticated systems, it contracted the work out to Norex of Halifax.

Norex, a website-development firm that developed into an incubation lab, has built the so-called front-end of Lexumo – that is, the parts of the product that the user sees and operates.

Lexumo is a Cambridge, Mass., startup that grew out of Draper, the incubation facility at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Funded in part by the Pentagon’s research arm Darpa, Lexumo can scan vast quantities of code quickly and identify vulnerabilities in complicated open-source software. The American company raised a $4.9 million funding round in February and in now beta-testing the product.

Lexumo’s cloud-based security service indexes all open source code, and is especially beneficial in embedded systems in ultra-complicated systems, like automated cars or Internet of Things applications. Lexumo checks line after line of code to make sure there is no security problem. If there is, Lexumo can identify precisely where it is in the reams of code, and automatically prescribe a patch to fix it. A team of MIT scientists developed the technology and contracted Norex to make sure customers can use it with ease.

Norex CEO Jenelle Sobey said Lexumo will help prevent cyber-attacks that could threaten the performance of highly automated machines, such as intelligent vehicles. Hackers have already proven they can use the internet to remotely turn on windshield wipers or unlock doors of intelligent cars. The results could be calamitous if hackers attack other functions like the brakes or steering, or attacked intelligent weapons.

The Lexumo project highlights an evolution for Norex from websites to more complex projects. Over the last four years, Norex’s products have ranged from the Pursu.it crowdfunding site for elite amateur athletes, to Hashpipe, which lets events showcase all the social media commentary related to that event. Its latest spin-off is educational technology company Eyeread, which has just been accepted into the Google for Entrepreneurs program in Kitchener, Ont.

Norex’s background in web development helped it build out the front-facing portions of the product. The challenge was to take a sophisticated technology and build a dashboard for it that would be simple for the user. Norex developed features like colour-coding functions that would signal the severity of the vulnerability. 

“It’s been one of our most enjoyable projects,” said Sobey. “These are the types of companies that we want to work with. The reason Norex likes working with these projects is that we’re a technology-first company and our developers like working with their developers and understanding what they’re doing.”