Safety Detectives: Please share your company background, how you got started, and your mission.
Uppsala Security: We started our activity at the beginning of 2018 and since then we continued to deliver a simple to use yet complex cybersecurity product suite that is addressed to individual users as well as corporations, government agencies, and the pioneers in the decentralized space. The trigger that led to the creation of Uppsala Security was actually an unfortunate event—the hacking incident that our Founder & CEO, Patrick Kim, experienced in 2016. He has always been fascinated by cybersecurity and was also experienced in the traditional cybersecurity space through working in companies like Darktrace, Palo Alto Networks, or F5. However, in 2016 he experienced the loss of 7,218 Ethereum tokens from a geth-mist wallet due to previously unrecognized security vulnerabilities.
This was what brought him to the realization that victims of hacking and fraud, no matter how experienced they are, had nowhere to go to report, investigate or even try to recover the lost funds. This was a crucial moment in which he decided that something has to be built to serve these situations. Through Uppsala Security’s activity, covering crypto AML/CTF, Transaction Risk Management, Regulatory Compliance, Transaction Tracking, and Cyber Security, our mission is to show up for end-users, organizations, corporations, or even governments in need of such services and to make cybersecurity user-friendly and ready for worldwide adoption.
SD: What is the main service your company offers?
Uppsala Security: As the first crowdsourced Threat Intelligence Platform, our team of experienced cybersecurity professionals has developed an award-winning suite of advanced tools and services for Crypto AML/CFT, Transaction Risk Management (KYC/KYT), Transaction Tracking, Regulatory Compliance, and Cybersecurity enabling organizations of every type and size to protect their crypto assets from malicious attacks and scams while meeting stringent regulatory compliance standards.
SD: What is something unique that helps you stay ahead of your competition?
Uppsala Security: The most unique feature of our project, and something that has never been done before, is Threat Intelligence Crowdsourcing. This means that Threat Intelligence data, stored using blockchain technology, is gathered faster than ever through the contributions of worldwide users. Literally, anyone can submit an incident, a dangerous wallet address, a fake social account, etc. through our Reporting feature, enabling access to this information in a decentralized fashion to billions of Internet users. This is a game-changer in terms of security and is something that goes hand in hand with the development speed of the decentralized space.
SD: What do you think are the worst cyberthreats today?
Uppsala Security: In terms of end-users, funnily enough, the worst cyber threats today do not differ much from what we experienced until now as an online community. As an example, if the industry, infrastructure, architecture, or even the currencies change, like in the case of cryptocurrencies, most of the tactics used by malicious actors are very similar. Besides various methods of hacking, one of the most common threats is scamming incidents. With so much access to online information and so many new platforms are opportunities that sometimes users might find overwhelming, scammers take full advantage and target exactly the most vulnerable part of the ecosystem. So we would like to emphasize this and kindly remind all the readers to please stay vigilant with whom they interact and to not share any of their sensitive information with unknown individuals.
One other thing that we would like to mention is that the more connected we are, the more cyberthreats we are exposed to. Every new online connection can be the target of a hacker. Interconnectivity is a great thing as long as it is treated with caution.