CANADIAN CORNER by Angela Rotundo
For many companies, the biggest obstacle to improving security is their employees. I Think Security knows this, which is why the Waterloo, Ont.-based start-up has developed an innovative approach to data loss protection
I
magine a day when any given business or company will have the luxury of guar- anteed mobile, online and data security — a day when the need for tech support becomes obsolete, and when security can be monitored and maintained by each company’s end user.
There isn’t a business that doesn’t (or shouldn’t) strive for that level of protection throughout its daily activities. And until now, that level of security has been hard to achieve, but thanks to I Think Security, such a luxury may now exist. While working on his PhD in computer technology, Cedric Jeannot, founder of I Think Security, dis- covered what it would take to maintain a company’s highest security level: allow all users to control their own level of security without the need of tech support. As such, the Waterloo, Ont-based company launched in August 2010, focuses on pro- viding security solutions that are as easy to maintain as they are to install. Its tech- nology provides companies security op- tions in such areas as data protection, cloud protection, mobile security and se- cure communications, regardless of the size or shape of the business using their products. It does so through its flagship product, Q1, a USB device that allows a user to secure files.
With Q1, there is no storage space on the USB; instead, it protects the files in- dependent of their location. Once a user is logged into the QI, files are encrypted and can be shared with other users on the QI platform. Thus, this level of protection can be deployed throughout a company without the need for tech support. And
8 SECURITY MATTERS • WINTER 2011
By developing the Q1, I Think Security's Cedric Jeannot believes he has fixed the biggest problem to data security: a company's workforce
MAKING SECURITY ACCESSIBLE
with such features as the ‘File Audit Trail,’ knowing who accessed which files when, is crystal clear. “We wanted to make our products and our security accessible to the everyday guy,” notes Jeannot. “So if you choose us, you’re going to get the same level of security as that large Fortune 500 company. Our QI guar- antees you that level of security and that your files remain secure.” I Think Security’s success was recently validated at the Cyber Security Challenge, a prestigious competition that looks for ideas, solutions and technologies that can prevent, detect, track and mitigate data leakage. Culminating with the final an- nouncement in London, England, I Think Security took home top honours winning the Best Cyber Security Product award. In fact, I Think Security is the first Cana- dian company to win this competition. When Jeannot began the company he was set on targeting the mid-size business sector, but when larger and enterprise- sized corporations took an interest in I Think Security’s products his range of clients began to grow quickly. Today Jeannot, and those on his team, like mar-
keting coordinator Jessica Chalk, knows what separates them from other security providers. In a word, it’s architecture. “Cedric has founded a culture of innova- tion here at I Think Security, with such a rev- olutionary security solution,” says Chalk. “We don’t really have direct competitors be- cause no one has yet built the secure archi- tecture we have, so what makes us different is that we focus on the end user. What Cedric focused on [in his PhD] was corpo- rate environments, so he knew that a com- pany was only as strong as its weakest link.” Aside from its unique innovation, Chalk explains that the company's products are near impossible to infiltrate. For example, Chalk describes the events that would need to take place in order for someone to access an important file. First they would need the QI, then a password to get into that, then the file, the authorized right to decrypt said file, but since all of these steps occur in different places it becomes almost impossible to do.
With such a revolutionary idea for the growing number of security-related prob- lems that continue to surface in this digital age, I Think Security’s line of data protec- tion products is just one of the reasons why Chalk and Jeannot feel they’re ahead of the curve on this one.
“Our focus is protecting a company’s files and folders,” notes Chalk. “By taking a look at all of the other approaches to se- curity out there, we’ve taken all of our competitors’ limitations and made them our strengths.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28