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There is such a thank you announcement on Apple’s official website – thanks to Huaan Technology Co., Ltd. from Nanjing, China, for discovering several high-risk vulnerabilities in a certain Apple software to ensure information and data security.
○ “Only those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world can truly change the world.”
○ This more serious advertising slogan was written by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, for the Think Different series of advertisements.
01 Apple’s official like
○ In a slightly crowded office in a carrier in the Research and Innovation Park of Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, several desks are lined up face-to-face, and four engineers sit in front of the computer, they are selflessly typing on the keyboard, debugging the code, and the server equipment is roaring. However, it is such a small company that has only been established for two years and has received thanks from top technology companies across the ocean.
○ In recent years, regional conflicts and confrontations in cyberspace have intensified. According to data, at least 80 countries around the world have experienced APT (Advanced Long-Term Threat) attacks in 2023, and by the end of 2024, global cybersecurity vendors and institutions have released more than 730 APT reports.
○ At the beginning of 2023, Zhou Yu, who has obtained a stable position and income in a well-known domestic Internet company, resolutely jumped out of the “comfort zone” and chose to devote himself to the new blue ocean of cybersecurity.
○ After landing in Jiangbei New Area, Zhou Yu and his team invested in research and development day and night, and launched 6 main products in less than two years. One of the products that discovered Apple’s software vulnerabilities was called the Boolean Black Box Intelligent Fuzzing Platform. Boolean is the industry’s first platform that supports both the deployment of general operating systems and domestic operating systems, which can be applied to test targets such as files, protocols, and application programming interfaces, and can be applied in government and enterprise offices, industrial control, scientific computing, 3D modeling and other fields.
○ Zhou Yu, the founder of Huaan on the cloud, introduced that the test target is a computer program bundled with Apple’s macOS system. Previously, Huaan on the Cloud used the Boolean platform to carry out software testing related work on the software, and found multiple high-risk vulnerabilities such as buffer overflow and release after use. “Attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to steal information and execute arbitrary code remotely.
○ In addition, the Huaan team on the cloud has also excavated serious vulnerabilities in large Internet vendors such as Siemens, Google, and Microsoft.
02 The Singapore government pays the bill
○ In the wave of scientific and technological innovation, the “newborn calf” is the most unstoppable. Those small and beautiful technology companies that focus on the professional field are precisely the bright stars that light up the sea of stars of scientific and technological innovation.
○ In some hawker centers in Singapore, a series of robots from Nanjing Whale Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. have been running stably for one year, helping restaurants take an important step towards overall unmanned management. “Just recently, the trial period of small batch orders expired, and the Singapore government was very satisfied with the products, and has placed another order to officially purchase in batches.” Wang Yang, the person in charge of Whale Intelligence, introduced.
○ During meal time, the busy hawker center has a large and complex flow of people, and the man-machine traffic is mixed, and the stability and sensitivity requirements of the robot are much higher than those in other scenarios. The robot of Whale Intelligence can be affirmed by the “strict” Singapore government, precisely because the operation is very stable, and the only two collisions are also caused by human initiative rather than the robot itself.
○ In 2022, Whale Intelligence will land in the Central Business District of Jiangbei New Area, focusing on the field of service and light industrial robots. At present, the robots it has developed cover medical services, industrial handling, intranet security model robots, hotel catering services and other fields.
03 Competing in the same field can better verify strength
○ For these makers who are keen to delve into technology, the “last mile” to the market is not easy.
○ “We are not afraid of competition, but we are afraid that we will not even get a ticket to the competition, and the difficulties faced by start-ups when they first enter the market are more difficult than we imagined.” In the early days of the business, Zhou Yu once led his team directly to an intended customer, hoping to get a business opportunity. After all efforts, the other party agreed to open a one-week testing window. Several members of the team plunged into the customer’s factory, bent on conquering each other with self-developed products and excellent technology.
○ “It is not so easy for large enterprises to make decisions, although the order has not been obtained, but one day in the future, when they encounter a network security dilemma, they will definitely remember that Nanjing’s cloud Huaan can solve it!” Zhou Yu’s words revealed certainty. The market is the best tester, and most of Huaan’s later customers on the cloud come to the door by themselves, because its technology can better find vulnerabilities and cover more scenarios, which can meet the software testing needs of the industry’s top manufacturers, and has its own unique technical advantages in some key technical fields.
○ In August 2024, in the 12th “Entrepreneurship Jiangsu” Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Competition, it won the “Excellent Enterprise” award in the new generation of information technology track; In September 2024, he won the National Bronze Award in the final of the 11th China Youth Innovation Competition (Science and Technology Innovation Special); In December 2024, he won the first prize in the entrepreneurship group in the finals of the “Science and Technology Jiangsu” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in the field of information technology…… With the support of Jiangbei New Area and its park, the Huaan team actively participates in various innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, using the arena as a display platform to “show muscles” under the “spotlight” and expand its popularity.
○ At the beginning of the business, Wang Yang and his team devoted themselves to the robot industry, optimistic about the market prospects of intelligent sanitizing robots, but only after a few months, they encountered sudden market changes, which made the early investment come to naught.
○ “Later, we visited more than 20 robot companies across the country to conduct market research and explore the development direction. In the end, we decided to focus our R&D efforts on the ‘brain’ of the robot to create the most practical and stable robot. Wang Yang said that for more than two years, the team has devoted itself to independent research and development of robot controllers and task management systems, combined with specific application scenarios to provide customers with solutions, and make “robot products that can truly solve practical problems”.
○ There is good news that Jingfeng Investment Holding Group is negotiating with the Huaan team on the cloud and is willing to lead the investment, and the first investment fund is expected to be in place in the near future. Zhou Yu and his partners have been calculating their plans after obtaining financing: on the one hand, they will expand the team and recruit some high-quality business personnel to help expand their business, and on the other hand, they will continue to invest in research and development and use technical hard power to strengthen their competitiveness.
○ Last year, Whale Intelligence’s revenue exceeded 10 million yuan, of which about half came from overseas. Wang Yang said that during the one-year trial test of the Singapore hawker center, many well-known robot companies at home and abroad sent their products for testing in order to get orders, but in the end, they returned home.
○ “We are not afraid of competition, and competing in the same field can verify our strength.” Wang Yang and Zhou Yu’s tone are the same. This year, Whale Intelligence will also fully start the industrialization process, accelerate the expansion of channels and open up the market
