The level of digitalization is increasing in more and more German companies, but this also makes them targets for cybercriminals. A simple firewall is no longer sufficient to protect valuable corporate assets. André Schweizer, Managing Director and founder of Qbound, explains in an interview what modern cybersecurity looks like and how his security startup is doing.
Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
André Schweizer, Qbound: My name is André Schweizer, and I am one of the managing directors and founders of Qbound. About two years ago, together with Artur Rösch and Sven Radszuwill, we decided to pursue an idea in the field of cybersecurity. We realized that, on the one hand, the interconnectedness of our society is steadily increasing—experts predict up to 75 billion IoT devices by 2025—and, on the other hand, cybercrime is also rapidly increasing—a 300 percent increase is expected in the next five years. That's why we at Qbound help companies, to protect yourself against cyberattacks and to provide fine-grained security for your most important resources – applications, data, and (IoT) devices. For this purpose, we have developed an all-in-one zero-trust access management solution that makes access management both more secure and easier.
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
André Schweizer, Qbound: As mentioned at the beginning, the number of cyberattacks is increasing significantly. Professional hackers are using the most innovative types of attacks – for example, using artificial intelligence – to steal intellectual property or paralyze business operations. The problem is that attempts to protect hybrid IT infrastructures – consisting of cloud, IoT, and on-premises – are still being made using rather outdated concepts.
The firewall becomes Swiss cheese
We like to use a vivid analogy to illustrate the problem: In the past, walls were built around cities to secure them. To enter a city, there were city gates to which only authorized persons were granted access. In the analogy, cities represent organizations and walls represent firewalls, which enable a strict separation of internal and external networks. The city gates represent VPN connections that allow access to the internal network. If a fraudster managed to get into the city, for example, using a false identity, a Trojan horse, or a tunnel, they could move around relatively freely and wreak havoc throughout the entire city. The situation is analogous if an attacker gains access to a conventionally secured IT network: They have access to large parts of the entire internal, critical network and can identify, manipulate, and damage all network communications and IT systems. Once inside the internal network (behind the firewall), users and therefore attackers have access to almost all resources. The situation becomes even more complex when a multitude of interfaces must be set up to integrate external services and smartphones/notebooks, etc. As a result, the firewall (city wall) increasingly resembles a piece of Swiss cheese with holes in it.
In the “real world,” we have replaced city walls with intelligent alarm systems on individual houses. This is exactly the step we enable with our solution in the “digital world”We ensure that only authorized people and devices securely access the right resources at the right time and for the right reasons.
Qbound's security approach
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
André Schweizer, Qbound: Indeed, more and more providers are moving toward zero trust. On the one hand, this naturally increases competition, but on the other, it also raises awareness among companies and decision-makers that zero trust concepts are truly the right path. We have been working on such a solution for some time and have developed an innovative security approach and a competitive advantage, particularly at the interface of IT and IoT, as well as in the cloud sector. With our solution, we offer fine-grained administration of secure access to individual IT components, which ultimately offers three decisive advantages:
1) Never Trust, Always Verify – Users must always authenticate before accessing a service or device.
2) Microsegmentation at the process level – each application and each (IoT) device is individually protected and communication is individually controlled per process.
3) Fine-grained access and principle of least privilege – dynamic access policies that incorporate real-time context data.
These advantages mean that we not only have an innovative lead on the technological side, but also offer a solution that combines the highest level of security with the greatest possible user-friendliness.
“Making mistakes is part of the entrepreneurial culture”
Munich Startup: Has there ever been a point where you almost failed?
André Schweizer, Qbound: I think these issues arise again and again – sometimes they are bigger, sometimes smaller. This can happen, for example, in software development when an innovative component of an idea cannot be implemented exactly as imagined. It can also occur in acquisition or application for funding programs when you don't get the support you need – to name just two examples. But that is also an important part of the startup culture: making "mistakes" as early as possible and as often as possible. The key is then to learn from them. This way you can develop quickly and ultimately develop a product that is optimally tailored to customer needs.
Munich Startup: How are things going?
André Schweizer, Qbound: Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the pace of our projects in certain areas, and we're having to cope with financial losses, but we're also seeing good progress in these areas. For example, we've been collaborating with the Dutch additive manufacturing platform operator Beamler BV on a pilot project since October 2019. We're also working on a pilot project with a major manufacturer of truck and train systems (Knorr-Bremse) and are conducting a research project on zero-trust solutions in the area of critical infrastructure together with Stadtwerke Wunsiedel, mobitherm, VK Energie, and the University of Bayreuth. We're also looking to the future with confidence regarding further acquisitions and financing.
“Munich is a model region”
Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?
André Schweizer, Qbound: When we first founded our company, we consciously sought out various incubator programs, which then brought us to Munich. I think Munich serves as a model region for many startup centers currently being established. Furthermore, Munich is one of Germany's startup hotspots, which also speaks volumes about the existing community here. It simply helps to be in constant contact with other startups and to have the opportunity to build a broad network—including corporate contacts and investors. In any case, we're happy to be part of Munich's startup culture and to be able to help shape it to some extent.
Munich Startup: Apple or Android?
André Schweizer, Qbound: Both areas are crucial for us, as we want to cover as many users and devices as possible with our mobile client. In fact, both worlds are used in our company.
