Press Release
Last Updated on January 19, 2024
Where do the great new ideas come from that really change the playing field in cybersecurity—or any technology sector? Do they happen in the R&D department? Through focus groups? On somebody’s home computer?
To share his wealth of experience as a technologist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist helping to transform today’s cybersecurity marketplace, Alberto Yépez, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Forgepoint Capital, joined a recent episode of The Virtual CISO Podcast. Hosting the show is John Verry, Pivot Point Security CISO and Managing Partner.
It’s about sharing information
Alberto has observed that innovation in cybersecurity doesn’t happen in the lab: “It really happens by understanding changes in technology and how people want to interact and facilitate sharing information.”
As an example, Alberto cites EnCommerce, a company he helped sell to Entrust in 2000 for about $470 million. EnCommerce sold portal infrastructure for managing e-business relationships through secure, personalized access to applications and services.
“EnCommerce was a cybersecurity company that enabled customer lifecycle management from someone visiting a website to get information about a product, be able to purchase online, and be able to get support,” describes Alberto. “It was the first web single sign-on platform that integrated with PKI, VeriSign and Entrust; integrated with RSA and all the other tokens. It also integrated with all the directories at that time. Everybody forgets about Novell and others. So, we had built the very first portal infrastructure that provided web single sign-on personalization.”
“EnCommerce was the learnings of me leaving Apple and starting as a consultant like many entrepreneurs, working with early adopters of technology like Schwab and Cisco and others that wanted to use the browser as a way to share information.”
Making a difference
Alberto ended up running Entrust and helping it survive hard times and experience a rebirth. But that’s another story. He has always been looking to make a positive difference for companies and for people.
“That’s how my experience with cybersecurity as a practitioner, as an entrepreneur, working with customers, resellers, distributors, the different markets and the secrecies of a large bank that has unlimited resources versus a small team that needs the same convenience and quality of cybersecurity. And then how to evolve and think through, as professionals, how do we provide the assurance or mitigate the risk, so whatever business we’re in, we can help.”
What’s next?
To catch the complete episode with Alberto Yépez, click here.
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