The Origin and Evolution of Abatis Cybersecurity

Abatis was conceived in 2004 at the request of the Swiss military, specifically Armasuisse, to address one of the most mission-critical challenges: securing military-grade infrastructure where failure could mean the loss of life. It was created for environments where traditional antivirus solutions could not function due to size, latency, or signature-update requirements, particularly in real-time, embedded, or air-gapped systems.

The result was a revolutionary technology: Host Integrity Technology (HIT), branded as Abatis HDF (Hard Disc Firewall), a compact, proactive, kernel-level security solution capable of defeating all known malware threats including zero-days, APTs, rootkits, and ransomware.

Abatis was first deployed in 2005 and has since undergone continuous refinement. It was designed to work in military, industrial, and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) environments, where high assurance, low latency, and zero disruption are mandatory.

Key features:

• Kernel-level protection with deterministic performance
• Footprint under 100KB: ideal for embedded, real-time, and legacy systems
• Zero false positives, no requirement for signature updates, blacklists, whitelists, or heuristics, behavioural analysis and able to function at 100% autonomously of AI.
• Protects systems as old as Windows NT4 (circa 1996) up to modern platforms (Windows 11, Linux)
• Compatible with air-gapped, legacy, and modern environments
• Abatis protects anything with an operating system, by design
• Stops malware before it executes, not after it causes harm

Abatis quickly drew attention for its ground-breaking capabilities:

• Finalist in the Global Security Challenge 2013
• Cited by Gartner and Forrester as a “Technology to Watch”
• Granted US patent in 2015, with European patent pending
• Tested by Lockheed Martin, which verified both energy-saving benefits and malware-stopping capabilities
• Endorsed by BAe Systems and evaluated by HP and Atos

Forrester Research went so far as to describe Abatis HDF as a new breed of security product, one that could replace traditional AV solutions entirely in high-assurance systems.

• Independently tested Abatis and confirmed 100% malware prevention in laboratory conditions.
• Verified energy savings: ~7% per server annually (approx. £35 / $60 per server).
• Recognised the potential for data centres and large-scale deployments to benefit both from security and cost efficiency.

• Integrated Abatis into its Cybersecurity Product Portfolio, enabling broader access to European and global clients seeking high-assurance protection for SCADA and legacy systems.

• Abatis was deployed via third-party integrators to protect critical infrastructure.

Abatis is one of the few cybersecurity technologies globally that can secure outdated systems (such as Windows XP or Windows NT4 ) without requiring a costly or complex infrastructure overhaul. This enables clients to safely extend the lifecycle of legacy systems, especially in environments where downtime or upgrades are operationally or financially prohibitive.

Unlike conventional endpoint security tools, Abatis proactively protects even the most vulnerable system components, including:

• Systems relying on deprecated or risky protocols like SMBv1, SMBv2, and SMBv3
• Platforms that cannot be patched or upgraded due to operational constraints
• Air-gapped, real-time, and embedded environments

At the same time, Abatis is engineered for future-facing platforms and continues to evolve in line with emerging technology trends and threats. It is capable of protecting or is in development for:

• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Industrial Control Systems (ICS)
• Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices
• Mobile (Android in development)
• Mobile (iOS on roadmap)

Abatis is now extending its protection into the Web3 ecosystem, where the stakes are increasingly high and the infrastructure highly decentralised. Our technology addresses critical threats in this domain, including:

• Protection of blockchain nodes and crypto wallets from insider threats and malware
• Immutability enforcement for vault systems and smart contract environments
• Tamper-proof forensic logs for court-admissible audit trails in decentralised finance (DeFi) and digital asset custody
• Seamless integration into custodial and non-custodial systems, without degrading performance

Looking ahead, our roadmap includes:

• Embedded deployment on blockchain-based infrastructure
• Integration into Layer 1 protocols as a native security layer
• Hardware-level protection for decentralized applications (dApps), DAOs, and crypto exchanges

Abatis was built to protect critical systems from existential threats. As the digital world shifts toward decentralization and quantum resilience, we are ensuring that security is foundational, not reactive.

• Fit-and-forget: Can be deployed once with no need for ongoing patching or updating.
• Central Management Console (CMC) provides:
• Policy distribution
• Log retrieval and analysis
• SIEM-like visibility for administrators

Abatis delivers a unique value proposition:

• Deterministic security that prevents malware execution before it happens
• Works on both legacy and modern systems
• Extremely small footprint with no performance trade-offs
• Proven track record in safety-critical and military-grade use cases
• Environmentally conscious: reduces energy consumption
• Plug-and-play with existing AV or endpoint security tools

Abatis isn’t just another cybersecurity solution, it’s a paradigm shift.

In 2022, the company behind Abatis was acquired by new ownership with a clear mission: to take this battle-hardened, military-grade technology and make it globally accessible. Significant investment was ploughed into research and development, bringing the technology back into the laboratory for a new phase of innovation.

This new phase led to a series of key advancements:

• Protection against Living off the Land Binaries (LOLBins) and advanced in-memory (RAM) attacks
• Closing of legacy protocol vulnerabilities, including those in Server Message Block (SMB v1, v2, v3)
• Development of a proprietary Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system, known as the Central Management Console (CMC)

The CMC enables centralised policy enforcement and forensic data collection across extremely large estates. It has been tested to scale beyond 300,000 endpoints on standard, non-specialised server infrastructure, making it ideal for government, multinational, and decentralised operations.

Alongside this technical evolution, a comprehensive global marketing and sales campaign was launched, introducing Abatis to a wider audience across Government, Enterprise, Critical Infrastructure, and the emerging Web3 ecosystem. From Swiss military roots to global cyber resilience, Abatis is now positioned as a foundational layer of security in an increasingly hostile digital world.

Platinum High Integrity Technologies was founded in 2021 with a singular mission: to acquire and scale the pioneering cybersecurity solution known as Abatis. Recognising its unmatched potential in the battle against malware and insider threats, we invested in Abatis Security Innovations and Technologies GmbH, the original Swiss company behind the technology, and have committed ourselves to bringing its capabilities to a global stage.

We immediately began expanding the R&D operation, augmenting the Swiss-based core development team with additional expertise in security engineering, systems integration, and advanced platform development. Crucially, we retained the original founder and coding team, preserving the DNA of Abatis while reinforcing it with new vision, capital, and strategic capability.

On June 26, 2025, coinciding with the third anniversary of the acquisition of Abatis Security Innovations and Technologies GmbH, Platinum High Integrity Technologies signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The MoU followed a series of high-level meetings in Dammam and represents a significant milestone in the global expansion of Abatis.

Founder and CEO of Abatis, Alexander Rogan, was invited to deliver a keynote address on the future of Artificial Intelligence in cybersecurity at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) , widely regarded as the “MIT of the Middle East.” During this visit, he was introduced to the Saudi Aramco Cybersecurity Chair Professor at KFUPM, as well as to the Cybersecurity Chair Professor of Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), UK. This forged the beginnings of a dual academic collaboration that now links Abatis with two of the most respected institutions in their respective regions.

The collaboration with KFUPM establishes a Middle Eastern centre of excellence for the joint development of Abatis 3.0,  a next-generation deterministic cybersecurity solution augmented by AI. In parallel, the engagement with MMU in the United Kingdom opens opportunities to advance Abatis into autonomous systems, satellite platforms, and other frontier applications where immutability and zero-trust security are mission-critical.

It is expected that both universities will play leading roles in Abatis’ future R&D roadmap, working directly with our core engineering team. Post pre-sale, the R&D division will be expanded to accelerate this joint research. Following the planned CEX listing in September 2026, this capability will be greatly enlarged to support global adoption.

In addition, discussions are underway in Dammam regarding the establishment of local manufacturing facilities for Abatis-powered hardware, ensuring secure regional production of firewalls, servers, and other security appliances designed to meet the Kingdom’s long-term cybersecurity and digital sovereignty objectives.

This new chapter not only strengthens Abatis’ role as a foundational layer of security for critical national infrastructure but also forges a global research network, uniting world-class academic expertise with commercial and industrial innovation.

Our group is headquartered in Malta, a jurisdiction chosen deliberately for its full access to the European single market and its stable, business-friendly legal environment, grounded in English common law principles. As a member of the EU, Eurozone, and Schengen Area, Malta offers alignment with essential frameworks such as GDPR, DORA, and the NIS2 Directive, delivering the legal certainty, regulatory compliance, and transparency essential for operating a high-integrity technology business.

Strategically positioned between Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, Malta provides an ideal platform for cross-border collaboration and international operations, critical to our vision of embedding Abatis at the heart of global infrastructure and next-generation platforms.

While continuing to support Abatis’ deployment in traditional enterprise, government, OT, and CNI environments, we have also taken bold steps into new and emerging ecosystems, most notably, Web3. In this volatile and security-conscious domain, characterised by massive theft, trust deficits, and the absence of centralized control, our zero-trust, deterministic security model represents a world-leading solution. By preventing exploitation at the kernel level and enforcing endpoint immutability, Abatis sets a new gold standard for protecting decentralised systems.

This is the new era of Abatis: forged in military-grade environments, rebuilt with world-class engineering, and now delivered to a world in desperate need of real security, not reaction.