The World's Best Security Solution for Fishermen (And Bad News for Rats)
- Patrick Duggan
- Dec 6, 2025
- 5 min read
TL;DR: In the 6th century, St. Columba crowned a man named Duggan as King of Tory Island and gave him magical clay that protected fishermen and repelled rats. 1,500 years later, a Duggan is building threat intelligence. The mission hasn't changed.
The Legend
Sometime in the 6th century, a monk named Colm Cille—St. Columba to the rest of the world—arrived on Tory Island, a wind-battered rock 14 kilometers off the northwest coast of Donegal. He came to spread Christianity. He found only pagans.
But there was no hostility. Instead, an islander named Duggan approached the saint with a problem.
Tory was being raided by pirates. The Fomorians—described in Irish mythology as "huge, misshapen, violent and cruel" sea raiders—had made the island their stronghold. Duggan was worried about his home, his family, his life.
Columba was impressed. Here was a man who took initiative, who named the threat, who asked for help.
So the saint did something unprecedented: he declared Duggan king of Tory Island.
He told Duggan to challenge the pirates. Duggan did. The pirates never returned.
The Gift
But Columba gave Duggan something else—a pot of clay with magical properties:
1. It repelled rats 2. It protected fishermen at sea
The clay—"holy clay" or *Tory clay*—has been in the custody of the Duggan family ever since. Tradition holds that only the eldest living Duggan can handle it, and it must be asked for "in the name of God and Colmcille."
Here's the thing: there are no rats on Tory Island. Not due to poison or pest control. Just the clay.
As islanders still say: *"People come from afar to receive the Tory clay. All the fishermen place it inside their boats to protect them from drowning."*
The Alternative Origin
There's a second tradition. The Móirsheisear—"Grave of the Seven"—marks where seven shipwreck victims were buried. One was a woman. She was buried with the men, but in the morning her body was found on top of the grave. So she was reburied separately.
Clay from under the woman's grave is said to have the same power: protection from rats, safety for fishermen at sea.
But the clay can only be collected by the oldest member of the Duggan family living on Tory.
Two origin stories. Same custodians. Same protection.
1,500 Years Later
The maritime industry faces a different kind of pirate now.
In 2017, the NotPetya attack hit Maersk, one of the world's largest shipping companies. The malware spread through compromised software and was later attributed to Russian military intelligence. It forced the shutdown of 76 port terminals, disrupted 45,000 PCs and 4,000 servers.
Cost: $200-300 million in lost revenue.
In 2024, according to Cyble's research, at least a dozen APT groups targeted the maritime industry. Chinese threat group Mustang Panda hit cargo shipping companies in Norway, Greece, and the Netherlands. SideWinder APT hit maritime facilities in Egypt, Djibouti, the UAE, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
A NATO CCDCOE policy brief warns that port infrastructure—handling 80% of global trade—is actively targeted by threat actors linked to Russia, Iran, and China.
Marlink tracked threats on 1,800 vessels in H1 2024: 23,400 malware detections and 178 ransomware attacks.
The Fomorians have returned. They just use different ships.
The Lineage
Patrick Duggan grew up on Top Road in Strandhill, County Sligo. Knocknarea out the front door—Queen Maeve's cairn on the summit, 30,000 tons of stone piled 5,000 years ago where warriors still climb to leave rocks.
His mother is from Cavan—border country. North of Sligo is Mullaghmore, where they blew Mountbatten out of the water in '79. He had M16s pointed at his head at checkpoints until they saw the American passport.
His grandfather was RIC—Royal Irish Constabulary. Took the Crown's coin. Carried that stigma.
He was trained by Michael Quirke, the bard of Sligo—a butcher turned woodcarver who knows all mythologies and carves them into the wood. An actual bard, not the Renaissance Faire kind.
The family pub crawl: Dolly's Cottage (up the hill), Patsy's at The Strand (down by the beach), and the Santa Maria (haunted).
*"The ends of the bread were the protestant pieces."*
Half Sligo dreamer, half Cavan penny-pincher. That's why the infrastructure runs at $75/month. Not cheap—*culturally informed*.
The Mission Continues
Is Patrick the eldest living Duggan with claim to the clay?
Genealogically unconfirmed. But consider:
• Protected fishermen from danger at sea
• Drove away rats (vermin, pests, things that gnaw and spread disease)
• 27,646 threat indicators published
• 110 OTX pulses (including consumers at Microsoft, AT&T)
• 99.99% uptime on $75/month infrastructure
• Pattern 48: Found a Russian phishing farm spoofing GitHub and Telegram before breakfast
• Pattern 38: NPM supply chain attacks the billion-dollar vendors missed
• Fresh-daily IOCs while the industry ships frozen fish from three years ago
The pirates have gone digital. The vermin are malware now. GPS spoofing. Ransomware. Supply chain attacks.
Same threat. Same mission. Different medium.
HMS Wasp: A Precedent
In September 1884, HMS Wasp—a British gunboat—was sailing to pick up police and bailiffs for evictions. At 3:55 AM on September 22nd, she struck a reef directly under the Tory lighthouse. Sank in fifteen minutes. 52 dead.
Local legend says the islanders used the ancient cursing stones—*Cloch na Mallacht*—to invoke St. Columba's protection. Pilgrims would walk the route counter-clockwise to release a curse.
Was the lighthouse deliberately dark? Did someone turn the cursing stone?
We don't know. But the cursing stone disappeared shortly after the sinking.
Don't threaten the fishermen.
The Technical Reality
The maritime industry is vulnerable because:
1. Integrated OT/IT systems create multiple entry points 2. Remote vessels with smart devices expand attack surfaces 3. Critical infrastructure (95% of US cargo comes by ship) 4. Interconnected supply chains multiply vulnerabilities
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework and NIS2 Directive provide guidance. But guidance isn't protection.
Protection is fresh threat intelligence. Daily IOCs. Real-time correlation. Someone watching the water.
The Claim
DugganUSA is on track to be the world's best security solution for fishermen.
Not because we have the biggest budget. Not because we have the fanciest dashboards. Not because we have enterprise sales teams.
Because:
1. The mission is in the blood - 1,500 years of Duggans protecting fishermen 2. The intelligence is fresh - Same-day IOCs, not frozen fish 3. The infrastructure is Cavan-efficient - $75/month, 99.99% uptime 4. We give back more than we take - Open source, free STIX feed
St. Columba gave Duggan the clay because Duggan was the one who named the threat. Who took initiative. Who asked for help instead of waiting to be raided.
That's still the job.
Bad News for Rats
The Fomorians came in boats. Now they come in packets.
The clay drove out rats. Now we publish IOCs.
The fishermen put clay in their boats. Now they consume STIX feeds.
Same magic. Different medium.
If you're in maritime, fishing, or any industry that depends on the sea—and you're tired of frozen threat intelligence from vendors who haven't seen a boat since their last corporate retreat—we're building something for you.
Fresh daily. Cavan-priced. Duggan-delivered.
And very, very bad news for rats.
*DugganUSA Threat Intelligence* *December 2025*
*"In the name of God and Colmcille" - The traditional request for Tory clay*
Sources
• [The Last King of Ireland: Patsy Dan Rodgers - Secret Ireland](https://secretireland.ie/the-last-king-of-ireland-patsy-dan-rodgers-tory-island-and-a-crown-forged-by-wind-and-salt/)
• [Tory Island - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory_Island)
• [Tory Island: Rugged Beauty, Pirate Past - Irish America](https://www.irishamerica.com/2011/02/tory-island-rugged-beauty-pirate-past/)
• [That History Nerd: Tory Island](http://www.thathistorynerd.com/2017/10/tory-island.html)
• [Tory Island History - Tuatha.ie](https://www.tuatha.ie/tory-island/)
• [HMS Wasp Sinking - The Irish Story](https://www.theirishstory.com/2021/04/16/the-sinking-of-hms-wasp-1884-a-curse-sabotage-or-human-error/)
• [Queen Maeve's Cairn - Heritage Ireland](https://heritageireland.ie/unguided-sites/knocknarea-queen-medbs-tomb/)
• [Slí Cholmcille - St. Columba Way](https://www.colmcille.org/en/map-marker/2-6-church-of-the-seven/)
• [Maritime Cybersecurity Threats 2025 - Help Net Security](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/08/28/maritime-industry-cybersecurity-threats/)
• [Cyberattacks Target Maritime Industry - Cyble](https://cyble.com/blog/cyberattacks-targets-maritime-industry/)
• [Cyber Threats in Maritime - GT Maritime](https://www.gtmaritime.com/resources/a-guide-to-cyber-threats-in-the-maritime-industry/)
• [Maritime Cybersecurity - Wilhelmsen](https://www.wilhelmsen.com/media-news-and-events/industry-perspectives/2025/maritime-cybersecurity/)
• [Cybersecurity Threats Maritime 2025 - Dryad Global](https://channel16.dryadglobal.com/cybersecurity-threats-in-maritime-for-2025)
• [STIX Feed](https://analytics.dugganusa.com/api/v1/stix-feed) - Fresh daily
• [OTX Pulses](https://otx.alienvault.com/user/pduggusa/pulses) - Same-day intel
*To the Duggan who first asked Columba for help: the pirates are still coming. We're still watching.*
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