What is Securosys?

“Do I need your stuff for my company?” asks Thomas, founder of one of the first e-bike companies. “Here we go again!” snickers my lawyer-friend Sarah, anticipating yet another of my attempts to explain Securosys. We are at the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF) in Interlaken, Spring 2019. Over the last couple days I’ve tried many different approaches to explaining my company’s products to other Swiss CEOs. My greatest obstacle has been the fact that they usually happen to be non-technical, but very business-savvy folks. As I tried out different versions of my pitch during the event, not all – or, to be honest – most of my victims – got lost in my explanation.

Stop the nerd talk!

This has given me some food for thought. Why is it so difficult to explain Securosys to “regular” people? Have we distanced ourselves that much from the non-technical community? Have we gotten too caught up in our perpetual nerd talk? If a Swiss CEO doesn’t understand Securosys, then how about investors and potential customers?

At first glance it looks simple: We are protecting the Swiss financial system. Our HSMs (Hardware Security Modules) secure financial transactions of over 100 billion Swiss francs per day by encrypting them with the help of a PKI (Public Key Infrastructure).

STOP!

I’ve learned that this is when I start losing my audience’s interest. Their eyes will glaze over at what inevitably turns into “nerd talk”. The part that will stand out the most to a potential investor or customer is “100 billion Swiss francs per day”. That’s a massive amount of money, and as such, sounds important. But how does it apply to their businesses? Seems like – thanks to us –financial transactions are already secured. What other possible use could they have for us in their companies?

Explaining our value to people regularly dealing with blockchain and crypto currencies is somewhat easier. Consciously or not, they have all dealt with encryption keys before, namely the public and private keys used to manage crypto currencies like Bitcoin. Crypto users understand that the private key needs to be kept secure and that the best solution is our HSM with its multi-authorization. However, when I ask the CEOs attending the SEF if they use Bitcoin, I often only get surprised looks. Sort of, “Sorry mate, Bitcoin seems not ready yet, we only deal with real stuff.”

Another approach I tried out on the “regular” CEOs was illustrating my point using data encryption as an example. I explained that they should have their data, databases, intellectual property, and communications encrypted. And then really make sure that their encryption keys are secured in a impregnable digital key vault. The best solution is obviously a Securosys HSM, located on their premises or employed via our CloudsHSM service. While the comparison works, all it does is make me sound like another insurance salesman to these CEOs. Where is the business advantage? Where are the savings?

At the close of the SEF with the audience dispersing Thomas and I are still talking. Instead of giving him another elevator speech on Securosys, I start asking about the IT system in his company. Do you use badges or key cards? Do you have a PKI? These are the systems we can secure with Securosys’ HSM, our digital key vault. While some words reflect familiarity, I am still too technical. However, I do seem to have piqued his curiosity. André, founder of an alternative travel company, looks interested too. Together we decide to get a beer and continue our discussion. Both of them have to deal with moving their companies into an increasingly digital world.

Reflecting on my various conversations throughout the SEF I can tell that all the CEOs and managers I talked to are attempting to transition their businesses into the digital realm. The basics have already been achieved: Papers  and documents have been converted into files, letters have been replaced by emails. However, something critical is only starting to happen: We, along with everything else, will be represented digitally.

We will have digital identities. Companies and other entities will have digital identities. Assets will be represented digitally as they get tokenized and, in turn, will be represented digitally, also using digital identities. We will trade digital items using digital contracts which we digitally sign with our digital identities.

Securosys secures digital identities

(and signatures)

(and things)

This is the answer to question, what is Securosys doing? We’re in the business of securing these digital identities, signatures and things. Which really means that we’ll soon be needed to secure everybody and everything in the digital realm!

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Robert Rogenmoser (RoRo) is the CEO and co-founder of Securosys, a leader in cyber and blockchain security, serving customers with its HSM network appliances (and cloud service) all over the world.

You can connect with him directly or reach him via email: roro (at) securosys (dot) ch

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