Steven Hope, the CEO of Authlogics, speaks about the opportunities to look out for in 2022

How was 2021 for the industry and your company?
While other industries have struggled as the COVID-19 pandemic continued throughout 2021, the Cybersecurity industry has been in high demand as businesses have recognised how online activity has increased from both an employee and consumer perspective. With the adoption of versatile hybrid working environments, stronger security measures have been implemented to protect organisations vulnerabilities. Authlogics have played a major role in ensuring companies are better prepared and more educated about the risks of data breaches by protecting IT infrastructures from the point of a secure login and the implementation of multi-factor authentication.

What sort of opportunities did 2021 bring along?
Being able to travel again was greatly welcomed by our team, giving us the opportunity to meet with customers and partners at the GITEX Technology Week in Dubai, and acquaint ourselves with new clients in Istanbul. We have also strengthened our distributors and resellers portfolio across the globe from Italy to Germany as well as the recent partnership with Shifra in the UAE. We value our trusted partners’ network and have lots to offer them in 2022 including a new Partner Portal.

Did you face any challenges in 2021?
People’s bad habits are hard to change as they continue to practice poor password techniques across work and personal accounts. This has increased the volume of breached passwords within our Password Breach Database which is now holding well over 4 billion compromised credentials. Authlogics have given companies the ability to identify risks, receive expert advice, and remediate affected accounts across their networks with the use of advanced threat intelligence that our Password Security Management solution offers.

We have received a lot of interest and inquiries from the public sector due to the rise of ransomware and phishing attacks which have predominantly targeted areas like healthcare, government, and utility. These forms of attack have heightened the need for organisations to protect their data sources as proven by the damaging Colonial Pipeline attack this year which stemmed back to one dormant service account with one breached password.

What were your key achievements in 2021?
Our Password Security Management solution provided a wide range of new features that incorporated a dynamic Password Expiry Meter, real-time password policy compliance feedback, and daily audit reports that now allow organisations to identify and fix breached passwords across all accounts including service and dormant ones.
For Authlogics as a team, we have grown in size, got ourselves a brand new HQ, and were even awarded as an IT frontrunner at the Global Awards where overall 6000 businesses entered from 178 countries.

What promises does 2022 bring along?
Passwords will still dominate as the primary login method, at work, and at home. Unfortunately, legacy password policies and bad personal practices will most certainly continue meaning the business enablement to digitally secure risk management frameworks will become a top priority. There will be many more very public breaches, ransomware, and phishing attacks, many of which could have been avoided.

Do you see opportunities in the regional markets with new markets opening up?
Africa and Asia are becoming more proactive and cyber-aligned with the rest of the world, so we hope to infiltrate these markets and offer our services throughout. This follows on from the expanding opportunities we have been seeing recently in the middle east.

According to you, which technologies will be in demand in 2022?
Passwordless authentication will be sought after as people have more flexible work arrangements and the demand for Multi-Factor Authentication will become the norm across accounts, moving away from SMS-based methods and hardware tokens towards biometrics and AI technologies. The demand for secure and trusted apps will become more apparent.

What will be your key focus areas for 2022?
We continue to encourage companies to migrate towards a passwordless environment that is safe and secure as well as cost-effective. Companies can greatly benefit from removing the password by reducing their helpdesk costs, saving time, increasing employee productivity by simplifying the end-user login process. A heavier focus will be placed on our Mobile Push solution to include geo-location technology, as well as reporting dashboards to give CISO’s a graphical window into what their authentication posture truly looks like.

What milestones have you set for 2022?
In order to fuel our aggressive growth plan, we are seeking an investment round in 2022. This will enable us to expand our geographic presence as well as bring newer technologies to market.

What would you like to do differently in 2022, when compared with 2021?
We look forward to meeting more customers and partners face to face, as well as seeing our colleagues in person instead of only on video calls.

Do you plan to enter new markets or add new products/applications to your portfolio in 2022?
Having become well established within the MEA, we are keen to target the US market with key benefits and new features including the latest Mobile Push authentication technology. Authlogics will also give focus to consumer brands, offering them the ability to detect and prevent user fraud within their organisations with the assistance of our advanced intelligence-based Password Breach Database technology.

Despite the possibility of supply chain catastrophes, vaccine vulnerabilities, and cryptocurrency corruption around the globe in 2022, there will be wedding bells and new arrivals to celebrate amongst the Authlogics team, we look forward to embracing 2022. Passwordless is the future, and we will continue to move businesses towards simplified and secure authentication methods to achieve this.