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Avalon Product Build

  • Challenge

    Develop an enterprise-level cyber security product with a new approach to visualizing threats and facilitating collaboration.

  • Solution

    Dramatically improve the software experience for enterprise users by applying a consumer-grade approach to this client-side app.

  • Results

    A web-based, real-time application for cyber security analysts that the industry is now adopting to more effectively graph threats and share findings.

Shared knowledge is power. Successful cyber security hinges on an organization’s ability to simultaneously track a system’s smallest details and its broadest patterns; to not only understand what’s happening in real-time, but to predict and protect against what’s going to happen next. But in a field that literally runs on information, the industry-standard software was falling behind in its ability to facilitate knowledge sharing between users. Cyber security software firm King & Union saw an opportunity to develop an enterprise-level application for cyber security analysts with a new approach to visualizing threats and fostering collaboration. With a back-end beginning to take shape, King & Union reached out to us for help in completing the front-end development and bringing this new product to market.

Development

Safety In Numbers

King & Union wanted to offer analysts a more collaborative approach to cyber security than the customary, siloed process. We worked with them to make it possible for analysts to work together in real time to create visualizations using web sockets, vis.js, and React.js. We also integrated a secure chat function, so team members could communicate quickly without leaving the app. Collaboration extended beyond the boundaries of a single company; we allowed multiple institutions to work together on investigations and share their findings with each other.

Sprints and Intensives

Security at a Sprint

With a goal of launching a consumer-grade enterprise product, we began by developing an MVP with King & Union, then working to evolve it through a series of feature-based sprints. We prioritized a simple, clean UI to house the app’s graphs and data. Working iteratively, we were able to add additional data enrichment features, including lenses analysts can apply to visualizations and importing external data feeds.

Development

Dealing with Data

We focused on creating a usable UI for the app’s complex threat mapping visualizations. Over the course of our sprints, we shaped the design to include type and color choices that created a subtle connection between the Avalon product and its parent company, King & Union. We also created color coded nodes, making them easier to track and monitor.

Summary

We worked with King & Union to develop an enterprise-level application that introduced new approaches to visualizing threats. With Avalon, analysts have the ability to increase their effectiveness by tracking data and sharing knowledge in real time.

To learn more about King & Union or their Avalon platform, visit kingandunion.com or write to info@kingandunion.com.