Security Firm, Voice-to-Text Startup Take Top Honors at CED Show

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Secure Command, a security technology startup, and Yap, a voice-to-text technology firm, took home the top honors in the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s annual InfoTech show.

Secure Command, which is based in Fairfax, Va., received the “People’s Choice” award.

Yap, a Charlotte-based startup, placed second.

Secure Command has developed technology to protect PCs and servers from Internet-based attacks. Rather than protect, detect and react to security threats, Secure Command uses virtualization technology to isolate enterprise networks from the Internet. Net access is enabled through what the company calls “disposable operating systems,” which are disposed of after use.

Virtualization software enables different operating systems to run on the same server.

Yap has developed a means of converting audio to text in an automated fashion. Yap employees have worked on other devices such as the Apple iPod, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and an in-vehicle navigation system for Honda.

In all, 30 companies participated in the Tech 2007 event.

The event also featured its first “Gaming Reception,” during which Triangle gaming and training firms such as Virtual Heroes and Emergent put on a variety of demonstrations.

Nearly 550 people attended the conference.