ALUMNI STORIES
Company Stops Hacking, Tracking
The growing concern about personal information and privacy in the digital age has led Ryan Judy ’08 to create a company based in Santa Barbara that develops products protecting consumers. MOS Equipment manufactures Mission Darkness faraday bags, tents and lockers that block radio waves, including cell phone signals.
“A lot of people don’t want their movements always logged or their information shared between their device and every wireless access point they pass,” Ryan says.
After graduating from Westmont with a degree in economics and business, he began working in security technology, primarily airport passenger and baggage screening, at a company based in China. He then started his own business in digital forensics focusing on phone and criminal forensics.
While in China, he learned how its government collects data on everyone, including journalists, to gain access to their locations and activities. “We supply Google with our phone bags, which they send to journalists operating in countries where they may be tracked on their devices and located, compromising their human rights,” Ryan says.
Modern vehicles with keyless entry and push-to-start technology are also vulnerable to a key-fob relay attack. “If you hang your keys on a wall in your house, cheap, readily available devices can go on the other side of the wall outside, grab that signal and boost it back to the vehicle where someone else can open it,” he says. Mission Darkness sells faraday bags for key fobs to consumers.
Products that shield radio frequency assist law enforcement officials when they confiscate laptops and cell phones as evidence. “They block signals so no one can remotely wipe the evidence on the device, allowing them to keep it charged and live,” he says. “To maintain the chain of custody with digital forensics, data can’t enter the device after its capture or seizure.”
A charged device allows law enforcement to use a tool such as GrayKey to crack the password and gain access to the contents.
The Navy’s special operations forces recently purchased a round of Mission Darkness Cyphercylent faraday tents, portable shielding rooms (6’x6’x7’) that create a secure environment.
Ryan continues to work with fellow Westmont alums on other ventures, including Jon Rogstad ’05, with whom he co-founded One Page Inventory, which manages ecommerce supply. He and Alec Avedissian ’08 co-founded Rareform, which repurposes vinyl billboards into bags and other accessories.
Ryan came to Westmont with a curious mind and an entrepreneurial heart, and he says the richness of his education and the connections he’s made contributed to his success.
A pioneer in duplicating CDs and DVDs on campus, he served clients such as Santa Barbara indie band Gardens & Villa and theater professor John Blondell as a student. “Drummer Levi Hayden ’07 came to me and said, ‘Hey, I heard you can duplicate some CDs? Our band needs 300 so we can sell them and give them out.’ Using equipment in my dorm room, mostly computer towers, I popped one in and duplicated a bunch.”
Amanda Lyon Benenati ’08 assisted him in making these CDs and now serves as vice president of marketing at MOS Equipment. “She’s been an incredible soldier through the years,” Ryan says. “She’s my right-hand person.”
His Westmont classes integrated faith and education and gave him room to cultivate his own spiritual beliefs. “I learned how to translate the faith of my parents into my own and to instill it in my own kids,” he says. “Westmont gave me a strong foundation.”
Two younger sisters, Allison ’19 and Maria ’24, have also graduated from Westmont. Allison, assistant director of Hui International’s Perinatal Health Equity Project, is working on an MBA at UC Davis with a passion for women’s health equity. Maria serves as a project coordinator for MOS Equipment.