With almost one million infections worldwide, the Corona virus has caused a global pandemic. To avoid it from doing more damage, many governments across the globe have urged their citizens to stay at home. People complied: At full speed, society adapted to a new lifestyle by home-schooling their children, working out through online classes and building themselves the best possible home office setting they could find. But after the first necessary steps, more fundamental questions came up. One that is especially pressing is that of security. Many individuals are now working from home, possibly handling sensitive data. Families are accessing their home network much more frequently and individuals are almost constantly online with their smartphones. But how can it be ensured that all this is done in a secure IT environment?

Peter Arnoth has the answers: “Whatever we do, our focus is on securing the digital lives of end customers,” says Arnoth, who’s the CEO of cyan Digital Security (in the middle of the picture), a company that describes itself as an “Enabler of Seamless Security”. Founded in 2006, cyan has almost 20 years of experience when it comes to IT security. The company sees itself as an ideal partner for all households, businesses or personal users who feel they might need to increase their digital security.

cyan’s business runs along three main pillars: Personal Internet Security, Business Protection and Family/Home Protection. cyan offers its partners solutions for customers that wish to protect their home network, be it a fixed line or a mobile router. Additionally, all connected devices are being secured – as well as those of people that might live in one’s household, including children. “Our advantage is that our protection works on a network-level rather than an endpoint-level,” says Markus Cserna, co-founder and CTO of cyan Digital Security (right). What he promises is simply an additional layer of security.

But cyan also offers Seamless Security not just for households or businesses, but also for individuals. The key here is to protect the personal data that’s transmitted through smartphones. Michael Sieghart, cyan’s CFO (left), says that “hardly any security solutions exist that are able to provide a combination of network-based and application-based solutions. The same is true for user protection when it comes to smartphones. And that’s in spite of the fact that people organize their whole lives on their phones.”

cyan Digital Security
... is a Vienna-and Munich-based security solutions provider. The company was founded in 2006 and today has 145 employees across seven locations worldwide. Its customers include French telecom provider Orange, German bank Wirecard and the insurance company Aon.

cyan acts as a white-label provider – offering their services B2B, customizable and easy to integrate in existing infrastructures. Customers include telecom giants such as Orange in France or Magenta in Austria, as well as insurers like Aon. Arnoth: “We believe that our customers are the best resellers. When Orange distributes our solution under its brand, the product looks more trustworthy than if we acted as a third-party vendor. It also makes the solutions more approachable for customers because of their existing relationships.”

To compete with large providers such as McAfee or Norton, cyan has perfected its processes. With more than 25 methods of analysis, the security provider is thorough when it comes to identifying potential threats like phishing or malware. One of them, the “Sandboxing method”, has even been patented. Arnoth: “We receive anonymized data streams and our data centers respond in real time. By combining these streams with AI technology, we can offer a protection rate of 99%. 100% is impossible, no matter what advertisements tell you. We succeed with the help of Big Data and AI – that’s our secret. Especially in difficult times like the one we’re facing globally at the moment, this helps us to maintain the high quality of our solutions for the protection of individuals, families and companies and to keep the threat of cyber criminals low.”

IT security solutions, Big Data and AI technology and renowned customers: The business model seems to be working. This success was not clear, however, when cyan first started operating, says Cserna. “We founded cyan as a group of friends and started by offering security solutions for corporate networks.” But the IT experts soon started picking up speed and had some early successes in the B2B market, with customers such as the Austrian Foreign Ministry. Cserna: “When Peter Arnoth joined the company with the vision of adapting our security solutions for mobile network operators, everything went very fast.”

Today, the tech company provides a broad field of digital security services following cyan’s claim: The Enabler for Seamless Security. This claim holds true as cyan operates on a global scale while being fully independent, provides technical excellence, guarantees easy roll-outs as well as customizable, flexible solutions. In its seven locations worldwide, the Europe-based company has 145 employees and most recently generated an annual revenue of 35 million €. The growth trajectory is continuing, as the need for security, especially at home during a lockdown, will continue to increase in the near future.

While the human factor can be somewhat controlled, the Internet of Things (IoT) makes security measures much more complex: “For every smartphone there’s a user,” says Cserna. “We can warn him before he clicks on a malicious link. But intelligent light bulbs and smart fridges communicate via central access points. No human sees what they’re doing. Thus, we try to analyze the data streams of these central access points and notify our customers if we detect suspicious activity.”

So, whoever might feel insecure within their home network while working there: Don’t worry. cyan Digital Security has more than 15 years of experience.

www.cyansecurity.com

Article: Forbes Editorial Team
Photo: Niko Havranek