Digital Fly Founder Derek Peterson Named CEO of Fast-Growing Technology Startup

HAUPPAUGE, NY--(Marketwired - Sep 28, 2016) -  Digital Fly, a social media awareness tool that makes schools and communities safer, today announced that founder Derek Peterson will assume the role of CEO to lead the startup in its next phase of expansion. Digital Fly delivers the most effective social media awareness technology today that gives educators, police and parents greater visibility into the early warning signs of potential threats in schools and neighborhoods.

Peterson is an experienced entrepreneur and veteran technology executive that has served in leadership positions at Intelligent Product Solutions (IPS) and Symbol Technologies. During his career, he has founded two successful companies and created software products that are deployed on millions of devices worldwide.

Peterson most recently served as Vice President at IPS, a leading software and hardware product development company, while simultaneously founding Digital Fly. Prior to IPS, he founded Computers by Design, a firm that assists libraries and public schools with computer security, with its award-winning software for security and managing public computers, and also founded WAM (Windows Access Management) Soft, that was acquired by a major library software company.

Prior to that, Peterson was Senior Director of Engineering at Symbol Technologies, where he created and implemented Symbol (Motorola) Software Test & Validation department and procedures. He also served as Director of Research and Development for computer security firm, Neohapsis.

Founded in May 2015, Digital Fly today is used by more than 70 communities, including schools in New York City and in Suffolk and Nassau counties on Long Island, NY, as an early warning system to improve school safety and has a proven record of identifying and preventing threats. Digital Fly helps to prevent bullying, suicide, gun violence and other potential dangers.

Digital Fly created a public content analyzer called the "Fly Paper Engine" that analyzes volumes of data including public content from various social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Digital Fly can flag geolocated posts based on keywords and phrases, to alert school and community officials to potential safety threats. It supplements cameras and other security systems that are already in place in schools. Digital Fly is a cloud-based solution and operates on a software as a service model that requires no software installation.

"From 2007 to 2015, more than 26% of young people reported being victims of bullying via social media, and we enable schools and communities to gain awareness of these social media postings to prevent incidents and improve the safety of our young people," said Derek Peterson, CEO and Founder of Digital Fly. "Those schools using Digital Fly are demonstrating a new level of commitment to create safer learning environments by shifting from reactive policing to proactive prevention, and it also provides a forensic tool to research incidents."

An accomplished triathlete (Ironman finisher), Derek holds a Bachelor of Science degrees in both Computer Science and Applied Math from Stony Brook University in New York.

About Digital Fly

Founded by Derek Peterson, Digital Fly is a spinoff of Intelligent Product Solutions. Based in Hauppauge, NY, Digital Fly develops and delivers technology for improved social media awareness to create safer schools and communities. Digital Fly is used by more than 70 communities, as an early warning system to improve school safety and has a proven record of identifying and preventing threats. For more information, visit www.digitalfly.net.