Crucial Role of Start-ups in the Digitalization Age

Technology’s ability to augment the cognitive potential of humans also has its downside. We are facing perhaps some of the biggest challenges of our times in this interconnected world: the threat of cyber security and re-skilling of human resources.

World Economic Forum estimates, in just 5 years, 35 percent of skills considered important in today’s workforce will change and 65 percent of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. New skills require reprogramming mindsets around learning with emphasis on blended STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) curriculum and it has to start in early childhood itself. Enterprises are discovering, often the hard way, every company’s core is now shaped as a technology company and as they continue to reimagine and push the boundaries of innovation, the role of CTOs, CIOs and technology executives need to change to that of chief innovation officers, digital officers and security leaders; roles which are critical core components of major business decisions as the technology on offer takes centre stage.

Security is a business critical issue and its responsibility now lies with the CTO. Considered now as the most sophisticated threat of our times, cybercrime is one of the top risks facing industries like financial services and healthcare, seemingly the most appealing ones for cyber criminals. Last year, hackers made off with millions of dollars from Bangladesh’s central bank by using malware to gain access to accounts. Healthcare industry, equally vast and complex, holding tremendous amounts of patient data is ill-equipped to protect itself from cybercrime as experienced recently with the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks affecting UK’s National Health Service and the ongoing healthcare data breaches across the U.S. With incentives like these, criminals will continue to look for similar vulnerabilities in the future pushing governments and businesses to strengthen their security infrastructure. The challenge however will be to balance safety with customer convenience.

Interconnected people on mobile devices and networked computers access services that require user authentication. Billions of dollars are being spent on securing user identity such as 2FA; second factor authentication using SMS and physical dongles, all of which are highly breachable, not to mention the low user experience and costs involved in them. One of our portfolio company from Israel has developed a technology using behavioural biometrics, capable of authenticating users by collecting information about their cognitive parameters, or the way they interact with their devices. This technology is based on a number of physiological factors such as press-size, hand tremor, hand-eye coordination, as well as cognitive traits, such as usage preferences and device interaction patterns, in addition to contextual factors including device ID, device preference, network access and geo-location thus providing a user profile that cannot be lost, stolen or imitated.

Another US based startup in our portfolio has developed a vulnerability and risk intelligence platform that enables organizations to measure and monitor their exposure to risk. Organisations face millions of vulnerabilities causing nightmare for enterprise security professionals This startup has created a platform that correlates external internet breach data, exploit data and zero-day threat intelligence with internal vulnerability scan data so that large organizations can focus on prioritizing and fixing the most critical vulnerabilities, and minimizing the risks of cyber attacks.

It is for the brilliance of such startups that people like you and me can enjoy the huge upsides of digital play without having to lose our sleep.