Global technology company Ciright is donating hundreds of cybersecurity devices as well as access to their FIDO authentication servers to participants at an April 9 hardware and software hackathon, Philly Codefest, hosted by Drexel University’s College of Computing & Informatics (CCI).
Philly Codefest, presented by Comcast Cable (April 4 to 9), will be the first major university event to distribute and utilize the company’s CyberONE cybersecurity cards and biometric keys, which enable passwordless authentication across websites and applications.
Described as “the next generation of secure login,” the CyberONE card is a near field communication (NFC) device that offers secure FIDO2 authentication through a biometric thumbprint key, which reduces the risk of phishing or cyberattacks.
“For nine years, Philly Codefest has spurred hundreds of novel technological ideas and tools to help solve society’s pain points,” said Isaac L. Auerbach Professor and CCI Dean, Yi Deng, PhD. “We are grateful to Ciright for their sponsorship and gift of their leading-edge CyberONE technology to help further Codefest’s impact, especially in the cybersecurity field.”
CyberONE technology was developed by Ciright based on free and open standards from the FIDO Alliance — an open industry association dedicated to creating authentication standards to help reduce the world’s over-reliance on passwords. 
The card runs on an operating system (OS) that manages a fully programmable 16-bit microprocessor, capable of running dozens of applications including IoT device access, edge device provisioning, smart locks, identity management and much more. Its ECC (elliptic curve cryptography) enables secure file read-write access and management through a proprietary Ciright file management system. This file management system, along with the public private key enterprise application management system, can manage hundreds of millions of users in a single application environment. If applied in an industry setting, Ciright proposes that this technology could streamline workforce operations by eliminating tedious authentications, saving businesses time and money.
As a sponsor of Philly Codefest 2022, Ciright is offering a two-part challenge to participants: first, to properly implement CyberONE card log-in authentication into their application, and secondly, to design a cybersecurity application or prototype that helps simplify the use and adherence of stronger authentication methods in personal or business applications. Winners of the challenge will be invited to tour Ciright’s headquarters to gain an exclusive view of their patented technology and meet with their leadership team.
Founded in 1993 by Drexel alum Joe Callahan (BS engineering, information systems technology & marketing), Ciright is a software and technology company based in West Conshohocken, PA, and Ahmedabad, India, and offers information technology services as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model to businesses, governments and nonprofits. Since 2016, Callahan has served as an advisory board member for Drexel’s Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship. In 2017, he received the Drexel University Alumni Association’s Alumni Entrepreneur Award.
Ciright has long been at the forefront of enterprise mobility, connectivity, IOT, mobile apps and location services technologies. The company was founded upon a goal to build scalable, flexible mobile apps to help industry increase business proficiency and eliminate use of pen and paper. The company’s early work included engineering and programming on some of the earliest smart phones in the 1990’s. To learn more about Ciright’s current work and innovative technologies, visit ciright.com.