What are Security Spikes™?
Security Spikes are a new form of intrusion detection. Firewalls try to keep intruders out. Other countermeasures look for signatures or anomalies. Some analyze digital footprints after the fact.
Spikes work like the dye packs that stain bank robbers when they open the money bag. But Spikes use invisible tracers instead of dye. If someone steals from you and uses a Spiked record, alerts go out. Spikes allow you to know about some breaches earlier. They even catch breaches that would have gone undetected.
What Can Security Spikes™ Do For Me?
How Do Security Spikes™ Work?
Security Spikes in Action: 3 Use Cases
Spike Lingo
Spikes are spiked records that we generate and you insert into your data. A record is considered ‘spiked’ if it:
- contains tracers that allow monitoring and scanning
- contains artificial identity info designed to obscure the tracers
Tracers are unique fields within a spiked record that allow us to monitor for activity. Generally, these are contact fields like email address, phone number, physical address, etc.
Artificial Identities are generated data points that flesh out a Spike so that it appears to be a normal record for a normal person.
Artificial Identities are used to hide tracers so that the Spike becomes effectively invisible. This is necessary because:
- real data cannot be used
- if the Spike doesn’t appear real, it might be disabled in by a person or a process
Alerts are email or SMS messages sent to you when a tracer has been used by an unknown entity. Alerts may indicate:
- a breach
- a privacy violation
- a legitimate marketing contact
“I really appreciate the ability to defend student data privacy.
My goal is to teach well. To do that I have to know these kids and the school has to collect data about them. That information has to be kept safe.
It seems to me that Security Spikes ought to be in every database.“

Sample Spike 5-Pack
Spike 1 | Spike 2 | Spike 3 | Spike 4 | Spike 5 | |
Email Tracer | ASearcy@__.net | usmcbro@__.us | cor.marc@__.com | DerkBarb1994@__.co | MWhiteM2009@_.com |
Phone Tracer | 206-528-5487 | 832-452-0643 | 315-273-5586 | 209-606-4738 | 914-379-5100 |
First Name | Ariana | Bryson | Corrine | Derek | Emma |
Last Name | Searcy | Johnson | Marcellus | Barbosa | White |
Company | Ulbrich | Trak Auto | Flipside Records | Hamady Bros. Markets | Bresler |
Street | 326 Beechwood Avenue | 1132 Elliot Avenue | 1601 Buckhannan Avenue | 3986 Grasselli Street | 1332 Pallet Street |
City | Piscataway | Seattle | Carthage | Dover | White Plains |
State | New Jersey | Washington | New York | New Hampshire | New York |
ZIP | 08854 | 98115 | 13619 | 03820 | 10601 |
Other | Taekwondo | SSN 125-26-9843 | Married, with children | WU MTCN: 7399116037 | Capricorn |