What appealed to you to join Riscure?
I joined Riscure a year and a half ago because I was always intrigued by the company culture. I already knew quite a few people working here, and they have often shared what it is like working at Riscure. Before joining, I decided to make an experiment and take a job, not in a sales-related field. But I was quickly bored and wanted to continue learning and challenging myself. So I decided to come back to sales as this is what I believe I am good at. Security was completely new to me, and this was the challenge that I was looking for. Riscure seemed the right fit for me, and I am very happy that I joined.
What is Riscure like internally?
Riscure is like one big family, where you have a lot of young people of different nationalities and people who care what they do. They care about you as a human being, as a person, no matter what your background is, making Riscure an amazing organization to work for. It makes it easier to work as the hierarchy is not as strong as in large corporate organizations. I appreciate that I can be myself and be able to say what I think about a certain topic or idea without worries. It is important for me to do that because, eventually, we are all people who work together toward the same goal.
How would you define device security in Mobile?
It is interesting that in Mobile Payment Security, we do not necessarily work with vendors that are related to device security. I think, traditionally, when we look at the industry itself, it was about devices, physical cards, and payment terminals or acceptance devices. But in the last 8+ years, with the Host Card Emulation, the focus has shifted to software. Everything actually is migrating to digital, and a lot of things are being digitalized. We all have our mobile devices, and we cannot imagine our life without leaving our homes without them. You may forget your wallet, but you will have your phone and will be able to pay with your phone. That is an example of how activities are moving into software. Mobile payments are evolving and will continue changing. For example, there might be more biometrics going into the future. These are some of the trends we see in the industry.
The major aspect of Riscure is that we are absolutely obsessed with one thing: security. The benefit of working with Riscure and what makes us special is that we have experience in both hardware security, which is traditional in the Mobile Payment industry, and software developments, which lacks security. The focus on both makes us unique. At Riscure, we also invest in R&D to make sure that we are ahead of the competition and we are very good at what we do. The Mobile Security Team has all the necessary accreditations from the payment industry. We are working on expanding our accreditations with the right bodies in the industry.
How is the role of security different among industries?
It is interesting to see that in some industries, security is seen as a cost, while in Mobile Payment, it is a mandatory requirement. Nobody in the Mobile Payment industry wants to take the risk, and therefore, our customers are required to go through the security assessment with a security lab because of the payment schemes and other certification bodies. However, in some other industries, security evaluation is voluntary, although many solutions end up being more vulnerable than, for example, mobile payment applications. For example, IoT devices are connected by design. Security implications of such broad interconnectivity are often not extensively tested, yet the model in this field is not standardized. Still, we observe the evolution of how customers perceive security matters, as more organizations that are not obliged to follow security assessments now conduct their own risk assessment. Vendors recognize the importance of security not only for compliance purposes but also for protecting their reputation and their brand.
What is unique about Riscure as a security lab?
The value Riscure adds to the industry is our extensive experience, being always ahead of the competiton when it comes to innovative technologies, and having a good relationship with the certification bodies who want Riscure to conduct the security assessments. When you talk to other companies in the market or industry standardization bodies like MasterCard, Visa, EMVCo, PCI, and some others, they all say the expertise is what makes Riscure unique. If you just want a report, you can go to any lab. But if you want to know more about security and improve it, you come to Riscure. We are not about ticking boxes, we are overqualified for that. We do what we are contracted to do and beyond.
Another thing that makes Riscure unique is our established partnerships with clients. It is great to do one project, but it is more important to build relationships, which is what Riscure is doing. We are collaborating, we work together internally but also with our clients. We want to accommodate them with not just what we do but also do a little bit more from the content perspective.
How do you build strong customer relationships?
That is not something you do overnight. It takes time. I think the first thing is always to understand what your client is struggling with. As long as you understand what the challenges on the client side are, then you know how you can help. In addition to that, there is a simple goal of responding to a customer request as soon as possible and completing the project in a timely fashion. They appreciate that, and that’s how you essentially start building those relationships. You are accommodating and facilitating to solve that problem as soon as possible in the best and most professional way. And I believe that brings clients back. Often that is also what differentiates us from the competition.
What are some of the latest developments in Mobile Payment Security?
I think that the industry is changing rapidly. While hardware services remain relevant, everything is moving to software. Software security is evolving and is important for us. I foresee many more biometric solutions in the future, so we will have to develop a new portfolio of services. I would personally like to make sure that we have more accreditations for our segment and that Riscure continues talking to the schemes because they enable us to do what we do well. Having a very good relationship with the schemes helps us to be there at the early stages and prepare for the next industry developments on time.
How may your role at Riscure change with new developments?
One thing I know from experience is there is no company that is perfect. But the most important thing is that I love what I do, and I have a great team to achieve a lot of new milestones, and we do it all together. I am very lucky in that aspect and would like to see the team grow further. I do not foresee myself changing my job anytime soon, but maybe I will continue growing within Riscure and taking on more responsibilities.