Sitehop: Cybersecurity specialist opens US office to support global expansion

Sitehop, the Sheffield-based cybersecurity specialist, has opened a US office in Virginia, Arlington, to support its global expansion.

Deputy Business Editor

The move is being led by co-founder and chief executive Melissa Chambers, a Mississippi-born former NASA engineer and entrepreneur, who is also the daughter of a USAF electrician.

It comes after Sitehop's encryption hardware was installed at key sites in Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia, a hub for the US defence and security sector.

A spokesman said: “Sitehop has joined Virtus Innovation Center in National Landing, close to the Pentagon and Amazon’s co-headquarters and surrounded by defence, government, tech, academic and investment institutions working on dual-use technology with civilian and military applications.

The spokesman added: “Virtus brings together organisations across that community, with connections to groups including hyperscaler AWS, venture capital network VC in DC, university Virginia Tech, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), geopolitics consultancy WestExec Advisors and the wider National Innovation Quarter ecosystem.”

Ms Chambers, who is attending the forthcoming Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition, said: “We have proved that we can build relationships, win customers and deploy technology in the US from across the Atlantic.

"Being on the ground means we can do it faster, build deeper relationships and be closer to the people and programs we want to support."

Co-founder and CTO (Chief Technology Officer) Ben Harper, who built his career in defence and intelligence technology at a leading defence prime contractor, added: “We have spent the last few years proving our hardware encryption and high performance post quantum cryptography in demanding telecom and high assurance environments.

He continued: "Now we are building a real presence in the US as we increase our focus on defence, national security and critical infrastructure.”

The expansion comes as the White House pushes federal agencies to accelerate their transition to post-quantum cryptography by the end of 2030, in order to safeguard national security and maintain technological leadership.

The spokesman said: “Sitehop's sovereign technology takes a different approach to incumbent software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) products that have become embedded across defence and enterprise networks and is built on reprogrammable hardware rather than a software stack.”

Sitehop's track record includes deployment with a global telecommunications provider across seven countries and the development of the world's smallest post-quantum encryption device to protect operational technology networks, the spokesman added.

It also became the first external company admitted to BT’s flagship test facility at Adastral Park, one of the most advanced telecoms testing grounds in Europe, the spokesman added.