Validin, LLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a network analytics company that provides cybersecurity research. We specialize in threat attribution, so we help identify who the malicious actors are behind data breaches.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Validin, LLC?

We needed to develop a custom data feed that we would use for cybersecurity research.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Validin, LLC has developed two custom data feeds and provided us with the engineering hours to integrate those pieces of data. Validin, LLC offers a proprietary database software they developed, and they also provide services related to data management using this software; we are customers of the latter. 

The product Validin, LLC has developed sweeps the Internet to gather information about domain names that are being resolved by domain name system (DNS) servers all around the world. Then, that search breaks down into two feeds. The first feed is the result of the scan of all these domains’ values, which are more than a billion daily. The other feed is the sourcing information that provides a list of all the different domains from about 100–200 different sources. 

Validin, LLC also provides consultancy services on the integration of this piece to ensure we’re pulling the data from them, putting it into our AWS account for long-term storage, and performing queries correctly.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Kenneth (Managing Director), although I know there are more teammates from Validin, LLC working on our project.

How did you come to work with Validin, LLC?

I had previously worked with Kenneth at another cybersecurity company. I contacted Validin, LLC again because of my previous experience with him. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $500,000–$600,000 with Validin, LLC.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Validin, LLC in January 2022, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The most remarkable thing about Validin, LLC’s development services is that the data feeds have been interruption-free since the beginning. I’m an engineer, and I've worked on the consumption end of several feeds and the production end of at least one, and this is a rare situation. 

Moreover, the feed Validin, LLC has developed is reliable, and their track record during the year we’ve been working together has been stellar. I can compare the active DNS scanning provided in the feed to another one on which we based our work. Our feed has 3–4 times the depth of coverage than that one. 

How did Validin, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Validin, LLC meets deadlines, and their performance has been perfect. We communicate through email, and although we don’t use a project management tool, we collaborate through AWS. Validin, LLC has access to our AWS dashboard, where they can see details about our storage costs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed by the fact that the feed developed by Validin, LLC hasn’t gone down in a year. 

Another thing that makes them stand out is their obsession with delivering value to their customers, something I’ve found startups have in common. We don’t have to conform to what Validin, LLC offers; they work with us to provide exactly what we want. I wish Validin, LLC offered more service lines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Validin, LLC to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re interested in using Validin, LLC’s database technology, I’d advise you to ensure you have a clear understanding of what kind of data you want to be able to pull out of the database. The database achieves most of its impressive performance through the immutability of the underlying data. You should know what types of queries you'll want to perform before you start working with Validin, LLC.