SMB Solutions Equipped With Countermeasures Against Business Email Compromise Cyberattacks – Average Revenue Per User to Increase 40%
NEW YORK, NY and TORONTO, Ontario, Feb. 14, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via NewMediaWire – Sekur Private Data Ltd. (CSE:SKUR) (OTCQB:SWISF) (FRA:GDT0) (“Sekur” or the “Company”), a leading Swiss hosted secure and private communications platform, is pleased to announce that it has launched its Sekur SMB Privacy and Security solutions of privacy communications solutions amid increased cyber attacks and BEC attacks on small businesses in the USA during the presidential election year.
Sekur has launched its marketing of SMB solutions in the USA through online marketing and plans to launch a series of channel marketing programs in the coming weeks, to get Sekur and its anti-BEC attack solutions to small businesses in the USA. The result is a gradual average revenue per user (“ARPU”) of up to 40%. Average ARPU per month today is approximately US$9/month. However, Sekur has been able to consistently increase its offering and its prices, including the latest price increase of its BEC protection email for consumers to US$10/month from US$7/month. This means that the most popular consumer solutions, its SekurVPN and SekurMail are now priced at US$9/month and US%10/month respectively, making its ARPU on consumers move past US$10/month moving forward, as 50% of its users bundle more than one solution.
The SMB solutions are priced 50% higher than consumer when it comes with SekurMail, and offer more features, such as mass onboarding of users for all its solutions offered under the Business plans and archiving of communications for its SekurMessaging solution. Overall, a SMB bundle is priced at US$31/month as opposed to consumer bundles priced at US$22/month. The SMB solutions are also targeting specific sectors that have suffered massive cyber breaches, such as the latest breach in the real estate mortgage industry with the Mr Cooper hack. In 2021 alone there were 20,000 BEC attacks reported to the FBI in the USA.
Alain Ghiai, CEO of Sekur Private Data, said: “We are seeing a dramatic increase in cyber-attacks in the USA due to the global conflicts at the present time, and due to the current presidential election campaign for the November 2024 presidential elections. Having our SMBs protected from BEC attacks is a prime directive and we are very happy to be able to offer this protection with our SekurSend/SekurReply easy to use feature and technology. We are also working on improving both the Sekurmail and SekurMessenger applications to increase load speeds and add more features, and we have just launched a new web version of SekurMessenger for SMBs. Average revenue per user is also growing and we expect moving forward to have between a 20% to 50% average revenue per user increase with all new subscribers. We are happy to be able to provide these new SMB solutions to the 33 million SMBs in the USA that could use some protection from cyber hacking, as we can offer the only Swiss-hosted, proprietary, private and secure communications platform that does not rely on big tech infrastructure, open-source coding or data mining, therefore reducing exponentially the risk of cyber penetration. Our prime directive is to provide private and secure communications for everyone, and as we are not connected to any Big Tech platform, we offer a truly independent, private and secure means of communications, without any data mining, through our proprietary technology and our secure servers based in Switzerland.”
Sekur also recently announced the launch of its SekurRelay Enterprise Email Solution, part of its Sekur Enterprise solution, allowing corporate executives and management to “split” their company email domain in two, benefiting from SekurMail’s SekurSend/SekurReply feature and other Swiss-hosted privacy and security solutions SekurMail offers, without having to migrate the entire company employees, eliminating a huge roadblock to mass adoption of SekurMail by large corporations and government agencies.
SekurRelay lets a company employee easily migrate their existing business email to Sekur’s privacy and security email platform, and “split” from the company’s existing email hosting provider seamlessly, while maintaining the same business email domain as the rest of the employees. This eliminates the need for enterprise IT departments to migrate their entire staff to Sekur, to have the same domain email address. SekurRelay lets company staff, as an example, use their existing provider and email @company.com, while having their executives or managers use SekurMail, keeping their existing email address @company.com. This “Inbound Relay” solves a large problem, as many larger enterprises have been hesitant to migrate thousands of employee emails due to the cumbersome and costly nature of doing so. With SekurRelay, companies of all sizes can protect C-level and management level emails from Business Email Compromise (“BEC”) attacks, while letting the rest of the employees stay in their existing email hosting providers. At the same time, all employee emails will be “filtered” through SekurRelay, and benefit from Sekur’s malware detection and spam filter, giving an extra advantage for all employees, whether they use SekurRelay or not, while only SekurRelay accounts holders will be hosted and have their emails delivered by Sekur.
Enterprises and some government upper-level employees and executives have been looking for a way to use Sekur’s privacy and security tools without having to migrate the entire company to Sekur’s email platform, due to costs associated with migration of thousands of emails. The goal is to get away from the main email platform providers that are being compromised with BEC attacks that are targeting upper management and C-level executives. Sekur is now able to eliminate these roadblocks and offer true protection against data mining, email phishing and BEC attacks to anyone subscribing to a business or enterprise email account, without having to migrate the entire company.
SekurRelay comes automatically with all Sekur Enterprise email accounts at a price of US$25/month or US$275/year with a minimum of 10 users per Enterprise account, with each SekurMail account offered with 250GB of redundant storage. This new solution will make sales to businesses of larger sizes, enterprises and government organizations easier, as it does not disrupt their existing IT infrastructure and planning and has no migration cost associated with it.
Sekur also believes that by adding its Swiss-hosted SekurVPN solution to its other solutions, it increases internet connection encryption of users and protects their identity from malicious hackers.
On April 7, 2023, the Company launched SekurVPN, its privacy VPN solution available through Sekur.com, and began commercial sales of its highly anticipated privacy and security VPN solution. The solution is also offered for sale in USD, CAD, NZD, AUD, SGD, CHF, EUR and GPB.
SekurVPN is especially meant for privacy enthusiasts and users wanting to protect their identity from hackers. An example would be users going to their e-banking or shopping online, using their emails, using messaging applications and wanting to have full privacy and protection from hackers hijacking their IP location and signal. The service guarantees not to use Big Tech or hyperscalers for its functioning or hosting, and it guarantees that there are no third-party bundles sold with it so no data is leaked or sold to third parties. It guarantees no traffic pulling or monitoring and no phone number is required to register to the service.
According to a Forbes article, 66% of surveyed internet users within the U.S. use a VPN to help protect personal data, 80% use a VPN for increased security and 33% use a VPN to mask their internet activity. More statistics can be found in this VPN Statistics And Trends In 2023 article.
Private:
SekurVPN uses its own proprietary infrastructure and does not use any hyperscaler or Big Tech hosting providers, unlike most other VPNs. SekurVPN offers Swiss IPs only. This guarantees that it is using only SekurVPN’s own servers and routing. Other VPNs offer hundreds of locations and are using Big Tech providers, compromising users’ privacy. SekurVPN never monitors users’ activity and never shares any data with third party service providers. By being a pure VPN, without bundled outside services such as antivirus and ad blockers, SekurVPN keeps users’ information private without sharing their data with third party service providers. With SekurVPN, users do not register their phone number on the app or the web, rendering users invisible from hackers or snoopers. No phone number to register, anonymous Swiss IPs only, no data mining or traffic sharing with anyone.
Secure:
SekurVPN’s secure VPN routes all your internet traffic through SekurVPN’s privately owned servers, in multiple locations in Switzerland only, using the highest encryption industry standards combined with its proprietary HeliX technology for added security. Encryption keys are not stored on devices and are unique at every connection. Users’ passwords, confidential data and internet surfing stay encrypted even over public untrusted internet connections.
Easy to use:
SekurVPN is extremely easy to setup and deploy. There is no country list and our interface is simplified; just tap or click the connection button. SekurVPN’s no-frills but highly secure and private service gives users peace of mind without thinking about geolocations.
Currently SekurVPN is available to use with MacOS, iOS and Android devices. Versions for Windows 64, Windows 32 and Linux are planned to be launched in the coming weeks.
In addition to SekurVPN, the company offers a bundled Sekur plan, which includes SekurMessenger and SekurMail as a bundle of email, messaging and file transfer into one application, and includes the Company’s latest SekurMail technology, which includes a proprietary anti-phishing and privacy feature called SekurSend®. SekurSend® lets a user send an email to any other recipient, whether they have Sekur or not, in full privacy and security as the email never leaves Sekur‘s encrypted email servers based in Switzerland. The recipient can then click on the notification and reply in the same manner using SekurReply®, without the recipient having to register for a Sekur account. The sender can also decide to protect any email sent by adding a password to open it, a read-limit and a self-destruct timer as well. Sending an email with the SekurSend® feature allows the senders and recipients to add limitless size attachments to the emails without crowding the recipients’ email box. This also eliminates BEC attacks for businesses and email phishing attacks. Additionally, SekurMail includes full control of email delivery, automatic data export for large enterprises and an automatic Data Loss Prevention technology (“DLP”) with real time continuous archiving.
Recent data breaches in messaging applications have created a certain urgency for businesses and data privacy advocates to protect their communications from cyberattacks and identity theft via mobile and desktop devices.
SekurMessenger comes with a proprietary feature and technology called “Chat-By-Invite.” This feature allows a SekurMessenger user (“SM user”) to invite via email or SMS a non-SM user, or a group of non-SM users, to chat in a fully private and secure way without the recipient ever having to register to SekurMessenger or download the app. At the end of the chat, the initiator of the conversation can remotely terminate the conversation and all traces of the conversation are deleted from all users, including the recipient. This unique feature is now fully deployed and functional on all iOS and Android devices and web platforms. The target sectors are numerous, including but not limited to real estate, legal, finance, insurance, medical, government, energy, manufacturing, trade and pharmaceutical sectors.
SekurMessenger also eliminates many of the privacy and security risks by not requiring a phone number, which would divulge a user’s phone device ID, but also by not social engineering a user’s phone or computer contact list and infecting the contacts by default as well, eliminating a huge loophole in security and privacy. SekurMessenger issues each user a username and a Sekur number. The Sekur number is the contact ID a user would disclose in order for other Sekur users to be added. The service comes with a self-destruct timer and other features as well, including Sekur’s proprietary VirtualVaults and HeliX technologies with all data stored in Swiss hosted encrypted servers.
Sekur’s Data privacy solutions are all hosted in Switzerland, protecting users’ data from any outside data intrusion requests. In Switzerland, the right to privacy is guaranteed in article 13 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. The Federal Act on Data Protection (“FADP”) of 19 June 1992 (in force since 1993) has set up a strict protection of privacy by prohibiting virtually any processing of personal data which is not expressly authorized by the data subjects. The protection is subject to the authority of the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.
Under Swiss federal law, it is a crime to publish information based on leaked “secret official discussions.” In 2010, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland found that IP addresses are personal information and that under Swiss privacy laws they may not be used to track internet usage without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
About Sekur Private Data Ltd.
Sekur Private Data Ltd. is a cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure and private communications. The Company distributes a suite of encrypted e-mails, secure messengers and secure communication tools. Sekur Private Data Ltd. sells its products through its own website, https://www.sekur.com, approved distributors and telecommunications companies worldwide. Sekur Private Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.
On behalf of Management
SEKUR PRIVATE DATA LTD.
Alain Ghiai
President and Chief Executive Officer
+1.416.644.8690
corporate@sekurprivatedata.com
For more information, please contact Sekur Private Data at corporate@sekurprivatedata.com or visit us at https://www.sekurprivatedata.com
For more information on Sekur visit us at: https://www.sekur.com
Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws (“forward-looking statements”). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as “anticipate”, “achieve”, “could”, “believe”, “plan”, “intend”, “objective”, “continuous”, “ongoing”, “estimate”, “outlook”, “expect”, “project” and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management’s current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guaranteeing future performance. Sekur cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Sekur’s control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company’s business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company’s ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in Sekur’s prospectus dated May 8, 2019, filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedarplus.ca . Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Sekur undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.
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