UK start-up Silicon:SAFE launches into channel
CEO Nick Lowe claims to have created a new niche as company makes channel debut
UK security start-up Silicon:SAFE has made its inaugural channel push this week, signing Nebulas as its first VAR.
The vendor, which specialises in referenceable data, is being spearheaded by former AppSense and Check Point executive Nick Lowe.
Lowe told CRN: "We have always tried to make hackers' lives more difficult and put up barriers for certain information. Passwords are one of the data sets that hackers particularly like. If we are truly going to stop them getting this information, we have to get it into an environment where, once it is in there, it can never leave and you can never even view it.
"So we took that idea and over the last 18 months we have created a company, created the technology, and are now shipping."
Silicon:SAFE is 100 per cent channel focused, he said. It recently signed Nebulas as its first partner, and has ambitions to sign up to a dozen resellers in the first phase of its channel launch.
The programme will initially be single tier, with hopes of adding a distributor further down the line, according to Lowe.
"It's the kind of proposition that fits really well with security resellers both big and small," added Lowe. "It is fixing a problem around today, and there is no direct competition. We have a level of interest at the minute, and as time goes on I seem to be getting enquiries all the time from resellers asking about the product."
Lowe said he thinks being a UK-based security vendor gives Silicon:SAFE an advantage because of the "high-quality" products produced in the UK.
He said: "The great thing about English tech is we have some brilliant cyber skills in this country, and typically we put a lot of emphasis on making sure we have a high-quality, deeply thought-out product.
"We have spent disproportionally more money ensuring we have an easy-to-install, quality product. You could argue that in some countries that flips the other way; you focus on the vision and hope you can deliver on it."
The vendor plans to move into protecting biometric data, and is currently deploying its credit card information storage system.
"Today we have got protection for usernames and passwords, which is a very well-understood problem that we can solve. In the same system we can also do the same thing for biometric data. The thing with biometric data is, what happens if you lose it? You can't reset a fingerprint. As biometric data becomes a bigger part of authentication, we will provide a very natural and very obvious way to store that data so that it simply cannot leave," said Lowe.
Silicon:SAFE also plans to expand into Europe and the US in the near future, Lowe said.
Nick Garlick, managing director of Nebulas, said: "Given the background of the Silicon:SAFE team, when they first told me about their plans it made instant sense. It could change the landscape for how companies store personal identity information."