Zero-Trust Cybersecurity – John Gunn, Token

This is texturing TV. Hey guys. Thanks for the throw.

We're here with John Gunn. Who's the new CEO for token? And they just raise some funding and they have a ring that you use for authentication and it's kind of part of the whole zero trust model in the world, but it's a different approach John.

Welcome the show. Thank you Michael. It's a pleasure to be on on the broadcast with you.

So how does this ring work and what's involved in you know are people using that instead of say the Green Lantern ring or how does this all coming? You know the green lanternally? I don't think think that's you cyber security but there are a ton of people already protecting themselves when you think about an Enterprise or a business, it's all about keeping the bad guys out and and the bad guys are incredibly sophisticated today.

These are nation states, you know, China North Korea attacking us. They are incredibly sophisticated criminal operations billion dollar operations that are attacking businesses and you read about the devastation they cause and headlines and not just cyber security headlines, but you know Wall Street Journal New York Times and so we're transforming the way companies protect that the front door, you know, there's still the connection to the internet. Well, this is where employees you know, log in and with so many companies switching to having a larger number of employees remote.

It makes that much more difficult. So we have this Innovative solution to really change the game in that area. So how does it work exactly?

I mean is this some sort of Bluetooth connection between the ring and the system or is there some other way I mean, what's the underlying Tech? Yeah. There's It's a combination of Three or four different Technologies.

Actually, there's about 20 in the ring, but it's primarily NFC. So if we look at standard access, you know for years and years has been username and password and that's yeah, I think was first used in 1960s. So here we are six years later.

Some people rely on that really bad idea companies have stepped up and said, let's get a better form of authentication. So sometimes when you log into your bank say on a new device, it'll say we want to send you an SMS code and it will send you a pin and you'll have to enter that because hopefully only you have your phone that's still not very secure and then you keep stepping up to levels of security. So we gave this huge boost this highest level of security where the information that the computer uses to verify you is kept on the ring.

So nobody else can access it only you have it only you can use the ring. Yeah, every other method about authentication has been hacked someone takes more work than others, but To get hacked we believe the ring is that we don't want to say unhackable because you know people always want to prove it wrong, but we think about as close to unhackable as you can get because your seed or the secret that identifies you is on that ring. It has no access to the internet so hackers can't get to it and only you can use it.

It uses your fingerprint when you put the ring on it reach your fingerprint. It only fits your finger. It only has your fingerprint and only you can use it.

So all the other methods that have Been improved that are still failing. I'll give you an idea. There's a industry report.

It's called the Verizon data breach instant report. It's really a group of 50 plus companies that share all their data year after year. The number one cause of breaches which lead to ransomware are compromised user credentials.

So for all the events that we've made As an industry we haven't made progress in that area. This will make definitive progress in that area. hmm We've had hardware-based tokens for a while.

What makes the ring more accessible or more appealing to people and is this going to be for everybody or is this for like a narrow group of users who are really critical and accessing things that are super sensitive. It today, it's really the latter because of the cost of the Ring The Ring is you know a lot more expensive than sending in an SMS and plain text which can be hacked. So it does cost more to cost more than tokens.

We see organization is layering on this on top. We're not saying hey throw away your you know, SMS could send secure most people don't need a higher level of security, but for it administrators for people and finance for senior Executives you do and and this provides that higher level of security that they need so it won't be for everybody but it will be for everybody. Where a breach You know somebody getting in that front door and putting ransomware it will it has tremendous Roi for them?

Do you think we'll ever get rid of passwords or will they always be around to one degree or another? You know, we are strong we are members of strong supporters of Fido and passwords. Should be gone.

They should have been gone a decade ago, you know, we're doing our best to eliminate them there a lot of other companies that are also trying to eliminate passwords because they have tremendous vulnerability like keep saying make him longer make him longer but there's so many ways to attack passwords credential stuffing all the passwords are out there. It's just it's not a secure method and it should be absolutely and that that's what Fido in our membership and all the companies that are in that that that's part of the mission. But this takes it beyond that.

This is a the more secure method about that occasion that that you can employ You guys just raised another round of funding. What's the plan for that? What do you guys thinking about it?

We raised around the funding. We've got a great VC Grand Oaks Partners. They've got a portfolio about 15 companies technology focus and that funding will allow us to invest in our R&D build out the the engineering team to make the product stronger and the next Generations.

So that's our number one investment. That's what it's for most of us going. It's also to carry the news that we have this product.

So in demand generation and you could you can build a better mousetrap, but the rule doesn't know it I'll keep buying the old bad mouse trap. So the other part of it is built out the sales organization and and create demand spread the news about this great new product. So can people customize their ring.

I mean, will it be like my college ring where you know, each individual company has their own look and feel and branding for it or how far do we go? We will add a great question. We will have the ability to have companies put their logo on if they want, but it's really not A fashion statement.

It's not a piece of jewelry, you know right now companies tell people you have to carry your token to work. You have to carry your badge to work. This will be another item that people will have to wear we think it'll be have greater utility and more convenience because people forget their badge they forget their token.

Well, they leave their token on a desk. Somebody else picks it up. They can now use that token.

They can get access to it a ring for those of us who are married something you never lose or misplace. But also since you just slide it on the morning, it's always there. It's not pulling it out of a pocket each time.

You want to authenticate I got to plug it into a port or do something else. it Don't those things are you know, impossibly hard to do. It's just much more convenient and much more secure.

So so we're not we're not going for a fashion statement here. I think it's beautiful, but I doubt it's gonna quit their job over, you know, the ring is a silver and I really want to black but so we, you know, we're ready for that. All right.

Well, it sounds like it could be a new interesting times. I don't know if I can fit another ring on my finger, but we'll see how that goes. But one thing for sure at least in my house whenever a ring does go missing.

The first thing we do is we call the plumber because odds are it went down the same side. Well, our rate is both shockproof and waterproof. So sitting down there in the little you Joy flooded with water.

It'll still be fully functional for the person. All right, at least we know where to start looking for it. Hey John.

Thanks for being on the shop. Oh look at my pleasure. Thank you very much for having me.

All right back to you guys in the studio.