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Sandy Bird still recalls the support Q1 Labs got from the University of New Brunswick long before it became one of the greatest Atlantic Canadian tech successes ever.

Bird was a co-founder of the Fredericton cybersecurity company, which was preventing attacks on large computer networks decades before the word “cybersecurity” entered the popular lexicon. In the early days, Bird and Co-Founders Chris Newton and Dwight Spencer built the company while working at the university – Bird in the library, Spencer at TeleEducation NB and Newton in Integrated Technical Services.

Like all universities, UNB’s network was attacked regularly by hackers, which often disrupted operations throughout the institution. Newton developed an invasion detection platform to thwart these attacks, and the three UNB employees and a few collaborators spun it into a company with the support of the university.

“Not only were they very supportive of us building the technology but they also had the use case,” said Bird in an interview. “They supported us in doing all of it. I remember we had to go to California once to meet investors and clients and they let us go even though we had day jobs with the university.”

After a pause, he added: “We would have never been able to do it had they not supported us.”

In 2012, Q1 Labs was acquired by IBM, reportedly for more than $600 million, and Big Blue based its global cybersecurity R&D operations in Fredericton, becoming a cornerstone of the city’s burgeoning cybersecurity community. UNB is another cornerstone. The university has been essential in providing applied cybersecurity research, attracting a network of partners, and educating a steady stream of talented young practitioners in the field.

Leading in Applied Research

It's a textbook example of UNB taking a lead in applied research to help tackle a huge problem facing society.

“This university really saw cybersecurity as a global problem and it gave rise to understanding the potential of real applications that could make a difference in a global context,” said Paul Mazerolle, the President and Vice-Chancellor of UNB. “It goes to the heart of what UNB is all about. We want to be a university that changes the world. We want to be a university that contributes to the public good. We want to make a difference.”

Cybersecurity is a great field to make a difference in because it has huge economic potential and impacts all aspects of society. CyberCrime Magazine says cybersecurity products and services exceeded $1 trillion in value from 2017 to 2021, and this figure will escalate in the future. The problems posed by cybercrime are compounded by the tight labour market in cybersecurity. The information security association [ISC]² has produced a Cybersecurity Workforce Study that says a total of 3.4 million cybersecurity jobs will be vacant as of this year. 

The New Brunswick government, academic and business communities understand the opportunity this presents and are dedicated to making the province one of the world’s great cybersecurity hubs.

After the 2012 acquisition, Bird became the CTO of IBM’s global cybersecurity unit and Big Blue’s Fredericton office employed hundreds of people. Soon, a cybersecurity cluster developed that included international companies like IBM and Siemens and exciting startups launched by UNB alumni. In 2017, UNB and several partners took a major step forward by establishing the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity at the university.

Growing from 17 to 65 Researchers

Ali Ghorbani, then the Dean of Computer Science at UNB and part of the old Q1 team, became the Executive Director and grew the institute rapidly. Today, the CIC has more than 65 researchers and has struck partnerships with corporations and institutions from across Canada and around the world.

“In three or four years, we increased 300 or 400 percent,” said Ghorbani. “We started with 17 people and now we have more capacity because industry keeps coming to us. We have the capacity to double this number in the next couple of years.”

The growth of the Canadian Institute of Cybersecurity is the result of UNB’s great strength in applied research – that is, research that aims to benefit society and the world beyond the university. It is a membership-driven organization that collects dues from private companies, which are willing to join because the institute’s researchers can help solve their problems.

“They’ve got a very unique model, bringing in companies and partners, both domestically and overseas, and signing various research agreements,” said Mazerolle, who became President of the university last year. “They’ve developed a lot of innovative databases . . . This is a vibrant research community that I’ve inherited since I came back to UNB and I’m excited about the potential. The institute is connected to [partners across Canada] and it could go to the next level to be known internationally.”

Rapid Launch of Cybersecurity Companies

The cybersecurity community also embodies another aspect of UNB culture: launching new companies based on research at the university. These include such Fredericton enterprises as Sentrant Security (later acquired by Nielsen) and Gray Wolf Analytics, co-founded by the Chair of UNB’s J Herbert Smith Centre for Technology Management and Entrepreneurship, Dhirendra Shukla. In Saint John, UNB computer science PhD grad James Stewart launched EhEye, which enhanced the use of security video, and sold the company to Patriot One Technologies of Toronto. He then became a co-founder of TrojAI, which is providing cybersecurity for artificial intelligence companies.

Bird and fellow Q1 veteran Brendan Hannigan eventually left IBM and started Sonrai Security, which helps large corporations organize and protect their data in the cloud. In a little more than two years, the company has raised more than $40 million.

Ghorbani himself is a serial entrepreneur who has created several companies, including a few involved in cybersecurity. He does so not just because of commercial opportunity, or to solve clients’ problems, but also to provide lucrative and meaningful jobs for young Atlantic Canadians.

UNB was essential in the launch and scale-up of these ventures – none more so than Beauceron Security. It was founded by CEO David Shipley, the former Director of Strategic Initiatives at the university’s information technology department.

Beauceron focuses on the human side of cybersecurity, on developing programs that help organizations’ employees to understand they can inadvertently allow cyber-attacks and help them prevent doing so. Though it just celebrated its first year with more than $2 million in revenue, Beauceron’s first customer was UNB and the institution was critical in growing its client list.

“From the beginning, by being an early adopter and being an early reference customer, the university helped us gain traction with other universities,” said Beauceron Chief Operating Officer Kathryn Cameron. “It helped to build our early-day sales.”

Addressing the Need for Talent

As well as providing research, the University of New Brunswick is supporting the cybersecurity community through its core mission – educating students. The global cybersecurity industry faces a critical lack of talent, and UNB is providing the graduates that are staffing these growing companies and institutions.

“If we’ve done one thing well in Fredericton, it’s to give these students a place to work and a home the day they leave school and not have to go anywhere else,” said Bird, adding that the quality of talent Sonrai has recruited from UNB is awesome. “Twenty years ago, they would have had to go to Toronto or San Francisco.”

Beauceron’s Cameron agreed, adding that her company has benefited by hiring graduates from a range of faculties, not just computer science. “We’ve hired some computer science, some engineering and some liberal arts,” she said. “Some people tend to think that with cybersecurity companies, that they only need computer science and that’s not true. We’ve had people from almost every faculty.”

Shipley said one more facet of the UNB experience that will benefit the cybersecurity cluster is the young sales program in the MBA faculty at UNB Saint John. He said Beauceron plans to tap the program in the future because he sees building a sales staff as vitally important to growing the company.

Meanwhile, President Mazerolle is focused on growing his university, and believes cybersecurity will be one component in ensuring that growth. The institution’s strategic plan aims to increase the student body by half and double the university’s research capacity. Participating in a high-growth business like cybersecurity will help to generate this expansion.

“This is an area that we value a great deal, not only because there’s great researchers [at the university in cybersecurity], but ultimately it is of great value for society,” said Mazerolle. “It’s an area that touches all our lives, every time we use our smart phones or every time we do a banking transaction. We want to be a university that is delivering for the public and cybersecurity is right at the heart of that.”

Learn more about UNB’s research impact here. 

About the University of New Brunswick

The University of New Brunswick is Canada's oldest English-language university. Founded in 1785, the multi-campus institution has a rich history and a dynamic focus on innovation, experiential learning and entrepreneurship. UNB has more than 10,500 students from over 100 countries enrolled in degree-credit courses on its campuses, online and at partner institutions around the world, as well as thousands of continuing education learners. As a comprehensive university, UNB is home to substantial research expertise in many disciplines. Its faculty and staff have collaborated extensively with public and private sector leaders to advance research and foster innovation.