Year One at CrunchAtlas: Autonomous Defense in the Real World

In our first year, Ben Faberlle and I through CrunchAtlas set out to prove something important: AI-enabled cyber defense belongs where the stakes are highest, inside the networks that power our communities and secure our Nation. We didn’t build another dashboard or promise abstract threat scores, we delivered autonomous, agentic defense where operators needed it most, in mission-critical environments. That mission took shape through meaningful, trust-based partnerships with the people and organizations on the front lines of critical infrastructure security.

Collaborating with NEUCIC and New England Utilities

A central pillar of year one was our work with the New England Utility Cybersecurity Integration Collaborative (NEUCIC). Through NEUCIC, CrunchAtlas engaged with over 10 power and water utility partners across New England, providing them with autonomous threat detection and response capabilities tailored to operational technology (OT), information technology (IT) and industrial control system environments. These weren’t experiments, they were operator-driven deployments that integrated our edge-native AI defense directly into complex utility networks to improve detection, reduce blind spots, and accelerate real-time response. Our approach, AI that hunts on the wire and defends at machine speed, helped utility teams enhance resilience without adding cloud dependencies or undifferentiated analyst burden.

Supporting National Security with USINDOPACOM

Year one also brought CrunchAtlas into mission-critical defense work. We partnered with USINDOPACOM to apply autonomous cyber defense in contexts where national security intersects with critical infrastructure defense. This engagement reinforced a core belief: cyber defense must operate where visibility is limited, consequences are high, and adversaries are persistent. Delivering AI-native threat validation, autonomous hunting, and agentic response in such environments underscores the practical impact our platform can achieve for defense operators.

What We Learned and What’s Next

Year one at CrunchAtlas wasn’t about awards or hype. It was about delivering tangible capability where it matters most:

• Operator-centric deployment: We aligned with real needs in OT and hybrid environments where traditional cloud-centric tools fall short. 

• Autonomous defense in action: Our platform demonstrated that AI can assume the full detection-to-response loop, reducing dependency on manual triage and accelerating mission impact. 

• Trusted partnerships: Our work with NEUCIC utilities and USINDOPACOM proved that collaboration rooted in shared mission understanding, is essential for meaningful cybersecurity outcomes.

As we look toward year two, we remain committed to the same principles that defined our start: solve real problems, partner with operators first, and bring autonomous defense to the environments where threats are evolving fastest.

Want to learn more or explore how autonomous defense can help your team? Visit us at www.crunchatlas.com or reach out through our contact page.