Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Bivin Jacob : Cyber security is my passion & I have been in this domain for quite some time. The trigger to start SecIQ Technologies was when me and my friends found an obvious security issue in one of the well-known mobile applications from a start-up, which could impact millions of users. We reached out to them, helped them to fix the vulnerabilities and hence secured them from a huge potential data breach. That experience made us realize that most of the start-ups currently are racing with time and is striving to get their ideas productized at the earliest – But in this race security has become an afterthought for most organizations.
There are about 41,061 ( https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/what-economic-survey-2020-21-says-about-indias-startup-ecosystem/articleshow/80586774.cms?from=mdr ) active Start-Ups in India & it’s exponentially growing. With technologies that are evolving, a lot of these companies are bringing in products which are integral part of day-to-day life for users. Right from travel to ordering food during this lockdown, the usage of Mobile, web & IOT apps is drastically increasing and along with this is the increase in cyber-crimes.
Due to huge cost, many start-ups do not prefer to maintain an in-house security team early nor are they able to invest in tools and process till they have matured their product. This opens a huge potential for offering security as a service to most of these organizations. That’s where we felt there is need to address this gap and a great opportunity to work as an extended security team - providing them with best-in-class security service for an affordable cost for every start-up.
Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by SecIQ Technologies
Bivin Jacob : We are a pure-play information security consulting firm with extremely skilled team of security professionals, researchers and thought leaders all dedicated to one cause — providing our clients with the best cyber security Service possible.
We provide end to end product security assessments for complete lifecycle across various technologies - right from building in security requirements early in the life-cycle to design/ architecture reviews, Security code review, Vulnerability assessment & penetration testing (VAPT), Network architecture reviews, Cloud security review and Red teaming exercise. We best-in-class security assessments, training, and consulting services.
Great Companies: What makes SecIQ Technologies different from hundreds of other Cyber security consulting firms ?
Bivin Jacob:
As a consulting firm, we strongly believe in our expert technical team. Many times, with just one opportunity we have surprised our customers by identifying critical security vulnerabilities in their products which have been tested earlier - for even a decade. This has helped them realise the value add of SecIQ and the unique skill-set that we bring in. The core differentiating factor is in depth manual approach combined with automation and home-grown script that enables us to exploit vulnerabilities from a hacker standpoint, which traditional scanners will not identify.
Another differentiating factor is that we work in a very flexible fashion with tailor-made services to meet the customer’s security requirements. We don’t just find and report security vulnerabilities, we also stand as a strong extended security team helping them with their end-to-end security requirements like training's, consulting, support in terms of incident response, specialized security audits and reviews.
Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?
Bivin Jacob : For a growing organization like us, the biggest challenge is to scale for the growing demand. There is huge demand in the industry and as technology evolves newer challenges are emerging in for all the existing customers and beyond. Adding to that, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on many of the security challenges organizations are currently facing. With information security domain being a niche area, we are at a challenging phase to scale at breadth and to meet the growing demands.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for SecIQ Technologies?
Bivin Jacob : Hackers seem to be more active since pandemic and have been keeping us busy as well. There is 37% increase in Cybercrimes in India during this pandemic and the demand for this Cybersecurity domain is definitely growing.
Pandemic has never been able to set-us down, rather with all the unprecedented situations, as an organization we have learnt to positively work through the challenges. We have been on the positive trajectory so far and in the next 5 years, we aim to be one of the market leaders for information security in our country.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Bivin Jacob :
“Satisfaction is a rating; loyalty is a brand”- Shep Hyken.
Just as any start-up, we had our own share of struggle in the initial days. It requires a lot of patience and endurance for the opportunity to prove yourself to the customer, to gain their confidence and let the world know about your brand. Once that is proven, then Sky is the Limit to achieve.
“Customer is your king” - Treat all the customers equally delivering your best service, irrespective of how small or how huge an organization they may be.
“Forget about your competitors, just focus on your customers” – Jack Ma (Founder, Alibaba Group)
No matter what the product or service may be, the only chance you have to succeed above the rest is to ensure that you are in constant touch with the needs and concerns of your customer. A satisfied customer is your brand’s spokesperson.
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