Faction Networks is delighted to announce that Philip Niedermair has joined the company as a Member of our Board of Advisors and a Strategic Advisor and Consultant for OA Technologies, our joint venture to manufacture Made-in-USA, ORION Assured Faction Pods and Portals and new category of Zero Trust Routers.
With over 35 years of corporate strategy, alliance-building, and cybersecurity leadership experience, his appointment reinforces our commitment to innovation, thought leadership and building partnerships across both the public and private sectors that serve our mission to deliver true Zero Trust security for networking, data and all of the smart, dumb and legacy devices for OT and IOT, Smart Homes and Workplaces.
Philip Niedermair currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board at the Technology Advancement Center (TAC), Senior Advisor to the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0, Chair of the Board of Advisors at the National Cyber Group (NCG). He also acts as a Senior Advisor to Virsec and the, and holds board seats at OSec, Platform Aerospace, among others. Throughout his career, Philip has guided global programs and advised leading organizations—including Coca‑Cola, MasterCard, UPS, Citibank, and BP—on strategic growth and cybersecurity work. In 2022, he was inducted into the Military Cyber Professionals Association’s Order of Thor, recognizing his contributions to national cybersecurity education and public service (citybiz).
Philip Niedermair, reflecting on his new role, said:
“I’m honored to be joining this team of Patriots and pleased to apply my decades of cross‑sector cyber strategy and partnerships experience to Faction Networks and the OA Technologies joint venture. Given that over 90% of routers – or their key components – for Consumers, Prosumer & SMBs are currently manufactured in China or nations in its sphere of control or espionage, it is self-evident that almost none of the routers we are using today can be trusted.
This critical national security threat is receiving some attention – particularly from the House China Committee but in order for a ban to work there has to be alternative. It is a matter of vital national security priority that we reclaim critical components of our manufacturing supply chain for our digital infrastructure which have been systematically wrestled, stolen and wretched from our control – an achievable goal is the router – which of course operationally and symbolically is the heart of the network.
Faction Networks has made a commitment to deliver true Zero Trust security all the way down to every layer of the stack – most crucially to the firmware, hardware and even microchips that we depend upon. We hope that in blazing this trail, many others will follow to help restore digital security and sovereignty to the USA. The great news is that in doing this, tens of billions of dollars of manufacturing can be reshored to America along with all the jobs and economic growth that entails.”
Geoff Halstead, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Faction Networks and CEO of OA Technologies, added:
“In our journey to build a true Zero Trust platform and solution, Faction Networks ran into a critical issue: we can’t trust the routers – and if the hardware you are running on is compromised, all of your cybersecurity software is worthless. Unfortunately, the status quo for the last several decades has been that manufacturers do not even think about cybersecurity in any serious way, and everybody in cyber security just looks away. We decided to do something about it: we formed OA Technologies to manufacture 100% made-in-America ORION assured routers and our unique secure networking appliances we call Faction Pods and Portals.
As entrepreneurs, we can and will take the risk to innovate. But the free market cannot solve this problem alone. Thus, we need to continue to engage in partnership with allied patriots and leaders in the Department of Defense, Federal and State Governments to build and implement a framework for action across legislative, executive and regulatory domains over the next several years which can enable us and the companies that follow to take back this captive market from China.
We are very grateful and privileged to have the leadership and support of Philip in this effort. From our point of view, it’s not just a business opportunity: it is our mission and duty, and we will put every ounce of our energy and spirit each day to getting it done.”
About Faction Networks
Faction Networks is a disruptive innovator in cybersecurity solutions, dedicated to building platforms, apps, and tools that enable everyday users and small to mid‑sized organisations and groups to achieve true zero‑trust security and privacy for their networking, devices, communications, and data. With a focus on decentralisation, ease of use, and comprehensive protection, Faction Networks is committed to transforming the way people think about and use cybersecurity solutions. Faction Networks delivers Zero Trust for the Rest of Us™.
About OA Technologies
OA Technologies goal is to disrupt and seize 20% or more of the $16M+ US Wifi and Edge Router marketback from made-in-China brands, whilehelping to secure our nation’s digital infrastructure, and blazing the trail to reshore the manufacturing of routers and smart hardware – and the billions of dollars of economic growth – to the USA. The following innovations and enhancements will enable us to achieve that.
- Manufactured in USA – progressively addressing the entire supply chain of critical components.
- Cyber Assurance with the ORION program – who want to be the new ‘Underwriters Lab’ for OT and IOT.
- Integrated Zero Trust embedded networking which eliminates the vulnerabilities of Firewalls.
- Proprietary deep tech hardware enhancements to motherboard and microchips in collaboration with our partners.
