Alphabet’s Chronicle Getting Set To Launch Cybersecurity Platform

Google’s parent company is set to launch its cybersecurity platform to the public.

Earlier this year, Alphabet announced the creation of Chronicle, a cybersecurity firm that will enable companies to detect and prevent cyberattacks.

At the time of the announcement, Alphabet wasn’t offering many details, just that Chronicle would offer two services: a new security intelligence and analytics platform for companies, as well as VirusTotal, an online malware and virus scanner acquired by Google in 2012.

The services have been tested out by a number of Fortune 500 companies, as well as smaller firms and those in industries including healthcare, government, finance, retail and others. But now, Chronicle CEO Stephen Gillett says the product is almost ready to be released to the public.

Chronicle is getting closer to going public with its cybersecurity platform, but hasn’t set a date, Gillett told CNBC. He shared that some outsiders have viewed the planned Chronicle product, including executives at other security companies.

And earlier this week, Chronicle staff moved into a new building in Mountain View, California, next to Alphabet’s headquarters.

Chronicle is a product of X, the company’s moonshot group. Gillett came to X from Google Ventures and was previously the COO of Symantec. He added that Chronicle will provide “planet-scale” security analytics, matching Google’s existing artificial intelligence with machine learning, infrastructure and “near limitless compute” capabilities.

“For us, and I personally, there is probably no bigger threat to humanity than not getting the cybersecurity threat right,” he said.

Another issue Chronicle wants to tackle: the cybersecurity workforce crisis.

“Right now, if you are a cybersecurity professional – and I don’t mean somebody with a [technology] background, I mean really somebody who just knows something about cybersecurity – I think the unemployment rate is at zero percent right now,” said Gillett. “We have a problem. There’s just not enough people to go around.”

And while the company’s research shows that many large organizations may have “only three or four people on security, and they might not have the right tools,” Gillett says Chronicle “can work with an average security team and turn them into a great security team.”