This Feb. 16, 2022 photo shows Sumuri testing hub in Magnolia, Del on Feb. 16, 2022. Sumuri is a provider of digital forensic solutions. The company builds and creates hardware and software to fight crime and protect vulnerable people and children. (Logan B. Anderson /Delaware State News via AP)

MAGNOLIA, Del. (AP) — Many people and companies say they want to save or change the world but one company working out of a historic building in Magnolia is actually doing it.

Sumuri is a provider of digital forensic solutions. The company builds and creates hardware and software to fight crime and protect vulnerable people and children. The company is doing their work from the former Magnolia Family Furniture building in the small Kent County town south of the Dover Air Force Base.

The name Sumuri is an old Tagalog word, which means to investigate or analyze. Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority.

The Delaware-based company was founded by Steve Whalen and his wife Ailyn Whalen. Mr. Whalen is a retired Delaware State trooper who spent most of his career fighting computer and web-based crimes. Mrs. Whalen is a native of the Philippines and a digital forensic specialist.

“I was the first with the Delaware State Police to be assigned full-time to do computer crimes. We got our own unit — a high-tech crime unit — in 2001. I was assigned to that unit until I took a retirement,” Mr. Whalen said.

His knowledge of digital forensics has taken him around the world helping law enforcement agencies and governments combat criminals and terrorists who use computers and the internet to take advantage of people.

During a trip to the Philippines, while working with the U.S. State Department fighting terrorism, Mr. Whalen met his wife. The pair soon became a couple, married and settled in the First State.

Mr. and Mrs. Whalen became a digital forensics team and launched Sumuri about 12 years ago.

“Coming from law enforcement, what I wanted to do was actually continue to help people –like what I did with the state of Delaware but on a larger scale. I had basically, at this point, taught all over the world and became a subject matter expert on certain things,” Mr. Whalen said.

PALADIN AT THE READY

When Sumuri began, its focus was training agencies and working with others on their investigations. Then it started crafting tools to help more people and groups.

The company’s first major project was to develop software they called Paladin to help agencies fight crime. Knowing that they created a useful tool that could help people and bring criminals to justice, they decided to give the program away for free.

“If you had a computer and you had our software, you had everything that you needed. And so, we gave that out to the world for free. That’s still being utilized. We support that today,” Mr. Whalen said.

Paladin has been downloaded on almost every continent and is also used by universities and schools to teach forensics.

“It’s used by just about everyone around the world that’s doing forensics for a variety of different things,” Mr. Whalen said.

Cybercrime investigators need powerful computers to do their work properly.

“(Paladin) spun off into more projects. We developed a lot of software to help to help forensic investigators investigate … That led us into the hardware side,” Mr. Whalen said.

Before launching its hardware division, Sumuri took a deep dive into the forensic hardware market.

“What we ended up doing was taking a look at the forensic hardware being forensic examiners, coming up with different designs and figuring out how much it would cost to do it the proper way, basically not sacrificing anything. And then seeing what the cost was, we found out that we could do it way cheaper and still make a profit,” Mr. Whalen said.

The company builds and sells its systems to agencies and groups now around the globe.

The proof that Sumuri is following through on its goal to make the world a better place can be seen on the wall outside of its administrative offices in its facility in Magnolia. Tacked on the wall are letters of thanks and news articles from the cases and people that the company has helped.

The company has helped solve murders, bring human traffickers to justice and save children who have been sexually exploited.

FIGHTING FOR HISTORY TOO

Sumuri is based in Kent County but has offices across the country and in Ms. Whalen’s home country of the Philippines. Though the company’s goals have a global focus, the firm has a real love for Delaware, and it proudly shows it in its hombase and its employees.

“When we’re looking for stuff, we look at Delaware first. And then we go to the United States, and then we go to North America, and then we go wherever else we have to go to get what we need,” Mr. Whalen said.

“I was born and raised here. I went to the University of Delaware and became a Delaware State trooper … I grew up in Wilmington, Christiana and New Castle area.”

Sumuri started in the Whalens’ garage. It grew to a larger space in the couple’s home and quickly expanded to need more square footage to get their work done.

The firm set out to find a new location, but couldn’t find exactly what they were looking for, until the Whalens when looking for some new furniture for their home.

They decided to check out Magnolia Family Furniture and found a lot more than what they were looking for. The Whalens became friends with the former owner of the Magnolia furniture store, Frances V. Zornes. When they learned that she had decided to close her business and sell her property, they knew that they wanted Sumuri to make the old building its new home.

Despite multiple contractors advising them to demolish the old structures and resell the wood inside, they declined and decided to preserve the building’s history.

Long before the building was a furniture store, it was the hub of business for Magnolia and Delaware’s once-thriving peach industry.

Farmers would haul their fruit to the east side of the campus’ main building. The peaches would be processed and then loaded into horse-drawn carts on the west side of the building to bring the fruit to market.

Now the first floor of the main building is the assembly hub of Sumuri’s hardware business. The place that once processed peaches and then was a furniture showroom now builds computers that leave Magnolia for places around the world to help people in need.

The juxtaposition of old wood beams and high-tech monitors and tools suites Sumuri. Their devices will see, stop and prevent some of the most horrific crimes in the world but they started in a place of love and preservation.

A GROWING FUTURE

Shortly after starting their business Mr. Whalen discovered that running a business wasn’t what he really wanted to do. He wants to build and create new tools, products, nonprofits and businesses. He realized that he needed help and found that help in Jason Roslewicz.

Mr. Roslewicz is Sumuri’s CEO, Mrs. Whalen is the company’s president and now Mr. Whalen is retired from Sumuri.

Mr. Roslewicz has helped guide and grow Sumuri into a worldwide leader in digital forensic services.

“I love the mission and what we’re doing. My background is in business. I’ve managed some big box retail organizations before this. So, taking a look at what the mission is and what we could do with that, we’ve taken it from basements and attics and turned it into what you see here,” Mr. Roslewicz said.

Sumuri’s Magnolia headquarters has three main buildings with 25 employees. The company has a West Coast office for its training services division and another dozen employees based in Asia.

The company is focused now on making more connections and building relationships to help more people.

Mr. Roslewicz said he and delegates from Delaware’s economic development groups will soon travel to the Middle East to connect with business leaders there and build more opportunities for the First State. Sumuri is also in talks with the United Nations to help fight against human trafficking.

CATCH-A-PREDATOR

With Mr. Roslewicz and Mrs. Whalen managing the daily Sumuri business needs, Mr. Whalen is able to work on other projects.

Recently, he, with Sumuri, developed a software program called Catch a Predator.

The program can be installed on any computer. It runs in the background of the device and looks for child sexual abuse material.

Mr. Whalen developed the first-of-its-kind software to help identify abusers and hopefully prevent abuse.

“I found through my investigations that every time we uncovered a child that was being abused sexually, it goes hand in hand with child sexual abuse material,” Mr. Whalen said. “It’s unlikely that if there’s a computer in the house, that you wouldn’t find it.”

He built the software for anyone who may suspect that something may be wrong in their home.

While investigating cases of sexual abuse of a child, many times he heard from the abuser’s partner that they suspected something was wrong but didn’t have a way to prove it.

“I just gave you a way of knowing,” Mr. Whalen said.

The program works like a virus search and can only be accessed by the user who installed it. Once it’s finished its scan, it provides the user with a report. It is up to the user to decide what to do with the information. Mr. Whalen encourages users to alert law enforcement if the program uncovers child sexual abuse material. At the very least, Mr. Whalen hopes that the information provided by Catch a Predator will lead a child away from an abusive situation.

To learn more about Catch-A-Predator visit catchapredator.org.

AN INSTANT TEAM

The Whalens recently unveiled a new venture called My Instant Team.

When they started their main business, the couple said they didn’t have all the tools they needed and eventually had to outsource some of the work. A new business often needs a website, graphic design work, marketing assistance and often customer service technicians.

It took the Whalens a lot of time to search for and organize the contract or freelance workers they needed to get their business off the ground. They realized that since starting their main company, they have developed a network of specialists who can help other businesses.

They decided to offer their network and expertise in building a team up to other businesses. This venture, called MyInstantTeam is run by Mrs. Whalen, and can be reached at myinstantteam.com.

To learn more about Sumuri, their software and services visit sumuri.com.