Your Super Bowl Bodyguard

As Super Bowl revelers cheer on their teams in two weeks, a DC-area tech firm will be keeping its eye on threats. (Though after today's temps, we're told the stadium will allow use of radiation for personal warming purposes.)

This is Haystax's fifth Super Bowl providing security technology. Public safety and commercial business president Anthony Beverina tells us its new mobile app allows undercover security officials to walk the crowds and report suspicious activity instantly. The info is collected through Haystax’s threat risk monitoring software and then analyzed and stored in its new public safety cloud. Their product ensures several agencies can monitor security on one platform.

Anthony, who launched Digital Sandbox and sold it to Haystax last year, says in the past, agencies worked separately collecting security data and it would turn into a game of phone tag to bring all the info together. But with the merger last year of Digital Sandbox and Haystax, the companies were able to move the risk-monitoring solution to the cloud, meaning hundreds of feeds could come together. The technology also pulls intel from social media, where people might be talking about suspicious activity. Haystax’s clients include most law enforcement agencies in California.

Haystax’s work starts a week before the big game, monitoring activity at 300 to 400 events, from press briefings to NFL parties. The company’s Super Bowl client is the New Jersey State Police, with several law enforcement agencies plugging into the Haystax system. The security intel will be analyzed at the public safety compound and then law enforcement can make decisions about where to move agents. The company is consolidating its Silicon Valley office and others around the country to officially house its HQ in McLean. (Does this portend a Super Bowl in Washington DC?)