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INI Alumni Adam Cecchetti and Austin Fath Build an “Immune System for Cybersecurity” with AI Startup

The work of a security engineer is never done. Currently, . With the high demand of security engineers, the issue becomes, how can a small team fulfill meet its security demands at scale? Information Networking Institute (INI) alumni Adam Cecchetti and Austin Fath are working towards a solution. After a successful round of funding resulting in $5.7 million, their startup is set to help ease the stress of security teams everywhere. 

Staris is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup developing a virtual application that helps teams spot code vulnerabilities. Using Large Language Models (LLMs), Staris helps identify bugs and can search through backlogs to find issues at a pace small team couldn't. “I have never met a security team that did not need additional people,” said Cecchetti. “AI enables us to take a step forward; a lot of the work that we've wanted to do, we can now do it.” 

Fath and Cecchetti, pictured left, met while studying at the INI in the M.S. in Information Networking (MSIN) program, graduation in 2005 and 2004 respectfully. For Fath, the interdisciplinary nature of the INI was the most impactful. “Being able to cut across everything was exciting and focusing on different areas was great,” said Fath. “We ended up starting a company because we had entrepreneur classes.” 

It was the mixture of theoretical and practical experience that Cecchetti recalls leaving its mark. “You rarely get these two aspects combined,” said Cecchetti. “We were building central processing units (CPUs) and embedded operating systems. At the INI, you’re going to learn it and you’re going to build it too. That was transformational.”  

The pair pulled from their experience at the INI and their careers to address a fundamental issue in the security space: as the number of applications and websites has grown, so has the need to keep them secure.  

“You pick up your phone and look at those 30 icons, and some part of your life is flowing through the internet because of those applications,” said Cecchetti. “Every single one of those applications is coded differently. They're supported by hundreds, if not thousands, of applications on the backend. All to make them work and do their thing.”  

That requires a lot of people to keep those applications and sites safe, and Cecchetti and Fath believe that Staris can help. 

“We envision a future — in the next five years — where AI is going to be writing the vast majority of new code,” said Cecchetti. “That's awesome! We have the Star Trek computer. Ask it for pictures of cats, it gives you pictures of cats. Ask it for code, and it gives you code, but this exacerbates the problem. All that new code is going to ride on the capital 'I' internet, and we need a way to keep it up, secure it just as fast as you can build it and then maintain it. So, we're creating immune systems for applications.”  

In this way, Staris can supplement teams in need of support. 

“Security is the intersection between the theoretical — of code and systems — and how they should run in the analog real world,” said Fath. “But you're seeing bugs pop up. Whether it's processors or people cutting cables, there's so much that goes into security that you can never cover. And these will all continue to be issues.” 

The new funding Staris has raised will allow Cecchetti and Fath to expand by hiring the team they need to grow. And for those interested in taking the first steps into entrepreneurship, they shared some advice.  

“Building something is always the best way to learn, and trying to get something real and tangible is by far the best way to gain experience,” said Fath. “The best time to do it is when you're young and at college, where you could meet other people and build up your network.” 

“Don't get discouraged,” said Cecchetti. “You're going to hear a thousand 'no's' and it's part of the process. It's part of understanding and finding your product's fit. I think one of the most tangible qualities an entrepreneur can have is resilience.”