Secfense Timeline

2024

EMS Partner becomes a certified Secfense partner

Secfense and EMS Partner strengthen cooperation. The software integrator has obtained certificates in the area of Secfense Suite technology. The two companies have been cooperating since May 2023, when EMS Partner included the solution from the Krakow manufacturer – User Access Security Broker – into its portfolio. The awarding of new certificates to EMS Partner representatives confirms their competence in the effective implementation of Secfense technology.

EMS Partner becomes a certified Secfense partner

Secfense implements strong authentication mechanisms at the Ministry of Infrastructure

The Ministry of Infrastructure has selected the User Access Security Broker offered by Secfense to support 2FA (two-factor) authentication using U2F/FIDO hardware keys. The tool will also secure electronic document management applications and the ministry’s e-mail.

Secfense implements strong authentication mechanisms at the Ministry of Infrastructure

Advatech in Secfense’s Partner Program

At the onset of 2024, Advatech became a certified partner in cybersecurity with Secfense. Secfense is the creator of User Access Security Broker technology, enabling non-invasive integration of strong Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) across all web applications and VPNs for all users, effectively eliminating phishing threats throughout the organization.

Advatech in Secfense's Partner Program

Secfense Strengthens Cyber Security at the Ministry of Development and Technology

The Ministry of Development and Technology decided to use Secfense User Access Security Broker (UASB) to protect the Ministry’s email system. It’s a project that underscores Secfense’s commitment to enhancing cyber security in the public sector.

Secfense Strengthens Cyber Security at the Ministry of Development and Technology

2023

Tomas Kratochvil joins the Secfense team

For many years, Tomas Kratochvil served as the CEO of Moravia, a company he helped transform from a small family business into a global leader in translation services. Moravia’s clients include Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Uber, Apple, Facebook, and Netflix. Under his leadership, the company expanded its operations to four continents and was named an Inc 5000 Fast Growing Company three times. Tomas also specializes in sales, business operations, and software engineering.

Tomas kratochvil strengthens secfense advisory board.

Sandis selects Secfense and secures the accounts of thousands of users.

Sandis – an integrator and software provider for the insurance industry, chooses and implements the User Access Security Broker solution by Secfense in the WAGAS group. Thanks to the implementation, among others, the recommendations of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) regarding cybersecurity in 27 different applications are being realized.

Sandis chooses Secfense and secures accounts of thousands of users

Bartosz Cieszewski joins the Secfense team. He will strengthen the technology development division

We are pleased to announce that Bartosz Cieszewski has joined our team as Solutions Architect. His job will be to provide technological support in the areas of multi-factor authentication solutions and digital identity management. With an impressive ten years of experience in the IT industry, gained in companies such as Atos and IBM, Bartosz brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise.

Bartosz Cieszewski dołącza do zespołu Secfense. Wzmocni pion rozwoju technologii

Beata Kwiatkowska joins Secfense

We’re thrilled to welcome Beata Kwiatkowska to the Secfense team as our new Business Development Officer! With her profound passion for cybersecurity and a rich history of championing cyber resilience, Beata brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our team. A firm believer in the mantra, “It’s not corporations that do business, but people,” she embodies our values of putting people at the forefront of everything we do. Here’s to new beginnings and the journey ahead!

Beata Kwiatkowska joins Secfense

Passkeys for Omnichannel

The Secfense Passkeys for Omnichannel represent our approach to adopting Passkeys in the telecom industry. Passkeys are a passwordless authentication method approved by the World Wide Web Consortium and the FIDO Alliance for websites and apps.

Passkeys for Omnichannel with Secfense

Secfense idP

Secfense IdP (Identity Provider) is a new solution in Secfense product offering. Secfense IdP was created to help with juggling many identities and smoothly shifting between different IAM systems. With Secfense IdP, businesses can pick and choose features from various IAM providers without having to do a full switch.

Secfense idP Secure flexible and simplified identity management

Secfense wins ECCC Access-2-Market and advances to ECSO’s CISO Choice Award Finals

Secfense was awarded the best pitch at the ECCC Access-2-Market event in Katowice, Poland. Building on this achievement, Secfense is now gearing up to participate in the finals of the ECSO’s CISO Choice Award.

Secfense wins ECCC Access 2 Market and advances to ECSO's CISO Choice Award Finals

Secfense joins Google for Startups : Cybersecurity program

Google for Startups has announced that Polish startup, Secfense, will participate in its Growth Academy program, specifically focusing on cybersecurity. The Krakow-based company was chosen from over 120 applicants across eight European countries. The selected startups are making significant contributions not only in their regions but also globally, from securing health applications to defending educators and protecting the clean water supply chain.

Secfense joins Google for Startups Growth Academy

Secfense and Yubico partnership

We’re excited to announce our new partnership. Secfense, the developer of User Access Security Broker, and Yubico, the supplier and developer of YubiKey, the hardware security key, want to show that easy-to-use, modern, and effective multi-factor authentication (MFA) is available to all organizations at their fingertips.

Secfense partners with Yubico

2022

David Burrows joins Secfense as Strategic Business Advisor.

David Burrows has joined Secfense’s board of advisors. David is an experienced leader in the ICT industry, having held senior positions in companies such as Olivetti, Digital Equipment Corporation, Microsoft, and UiPath.

Davids-Burrows-Secfense-Advisor

Secfense honored by Rzeczpospolita magazine

25 Distinctions for the 25th Anniversary of the Digital Republic. Among them is Secfense, a company that specializes in the easy adoption of strong, multi-factor authentication in organizations. Companies such as PZU and Allegro were also among the awardees.

Secfense honored by Rzeczpospolita magazine

Secfense with a new offer for cooperative banks

The technology that protects against phishing and credential theft and does not require any engagement of software developers in the implementation process is now available to cooperative banks in Poland. Secfense and CRUZ (Center for the Development of Association Services) have just signed an agreement under which the CRUZ offer for cooperative banks will include the User Access Security Broker.

Secfense with a new offer for cooperative banks

Secfense gets to the semi-finals of Webit Founders Games.

WFG an invitation-only program focused on high growth and high potential companies.

webit

Dave Darsch joins Secfense as Strategic Business Advisor.

Dave has over 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur and executive of global technology companies. He has been involved in more than 15 transactions involving the purchase, sale & mergers, e.x. the Apple acquisition of Shazam.

Dave Darsch Advisor at Secfense

Secfense joins NVIDIA Inception

NVIDIA Inception will allow Secfense to drive our business forward through go-to-market support and technology assistance. The program will also offer Secfense the opportunity to collaborate with industry-leading experts and other AI-driven organizations.

Secfense Joins NVIDIA Inception

Secfense joins the EYnovation program

Secfense joins the EYnovation program, supporting the development of young entrepreneurs, startups, and scaleups in Poland. EYnovation connects various market players, young entrepreneurs, startups, scaleups, venture capital funds, corporations, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and universities.

Secfense przystępuje do programu EYnovation

BNP Paribas Bank Polska recognized in the 'Technology Leader' competition.

Technology Leader is a competiton that rewards the most innovative banks in Poland. BNP Paribas Polska bank gets recognition for ‘2FA implementation by Secfense – Fast Track to Zero Trust Security’.

BNP Paribas Bank Polska awarded in the "Leader" competition of Gazeta Bankowa for implementing Secfense USer Access Security Broker.

New product: Secfense Authenticator

Secfense Authenticator lets you use your phone for strong online authentication. With the Secfense Authenticator app, you can cryptographically confirm your identity in the same secure way you’ve previously been able to do only with physical U2F / FIDO2 cryptographic keys.

Secfense Authenticator

Secfense joins the FIDO Alliance

The FIDO Alliance goal is to help reduce the world’s over-reliance on passwords. Among members there are companies like Amazon, Apple or Meta. Joining the association was a natural consequence of Secfense’s vision, i.e. easy transformation to authentication without passwords.

Secfense joins FIDO Alliance

Secfense founders raise $2 million to help organizations in transition to passwordless future

Secfense, an American-Polish-based company, raises $2 million in seed funding from Tera VC, Presto Ventures, and RKKVC. Secfense mission is to eradicate password-related attacks and help organizations transition into a secure and passwordless future. The company achieves that by introducing strong authentication within the entire organization and protecting all systems and applications without a single line of code. The money will be used to build a position on foreign markets, with an emphasis on the UK and the US.

Secfense raises $2 million from Tera VC, Presto Ventures, and RKKVC

Secfense broker implementation in government & public sector

The Secfense broker was implemented in a company that maintains and develops the largest IT systems in Poland. The broker will help in securing dozens of public institutions with strong authentication.

Secfense broker implementation in government & public sector

2021

Trusted groups - New Secfense broker functionality

This feature allows security admin to group users in trusted groups and adjusts their authentication requirements accordingly. This is useful in the case of employees who use multiple MFA-protected applications on a daily basis. Trusted groups significantly increase the user experience.

Secfense Trust Groups

Secfense shares its vision of passwordless authentication adoption for the first time.

During the The Zero Trust Interactive Forum Secfense shows its demo and explains how to introduce zero trust and passwordless authentication globally.

How-to-Introduce-Zero-Trust-and-Passwordless-Authentication-Globally.

Puls Biznesu and Gazeta Wyborcza publishes their articles about Secfense.

Big country-wide media reach out to Secfense for comments about Cybersecurity related subjects. Secfense keeps building a position of a thought leader.

Secfense was recognized by Miesięcznik Gazeta Bankowa as one of the most interesting vendors of banking technology in 2021.

Tomasz Kowalski, CEO & cofounder received a recommendation from the jury for User Access Security Broker a solution that paves the way for passwordless authentication in big organizations.

BNP Paribas Bank Polska has started the cooperation with Secfense

Polish startup cybersecurity company based in Krakow.

Krzysztof Góźdź joins the Secfense team to drive sales and new business development.

Krzysztof has more than 20 years of experience in Information Technology & Services sales and has previously worked for IBM and Hewlett-Packard bringing on board enterprise customers and cooperating with them.

Nearly 100 banking apps protected with Strong Authentication.

Secfense helped one of the top 5 biggest banks in Poland scale multi-factor authentication across entire organization.

2020

Polish Cyber Security Startup Secfense Is Looking to Expand in the UK

IT Key media publishes an article about Secfense.

UiPath Automation Awards - the finalist and audience choice winner.

Secfense was recognized as one of the top 3 automation focused startups from more than 250 contestants from CEE & Turkey.

Webinar for the UK audience

Security in the new work-from-anywhere world (How to add 2FA to any app) hosted by Thom Langford

UPC Think Big: Think Digital - semifinalist.

Think Big is a long-term program of UPC Polska for entrepreneurs creating and developing based on new technologies and social innovators.

Secfense Supports Kerberos Authentication.

Kerberos provides secure authentication to services over an insecure network. Many organizations use Kerberos as the base for single sign-on.

New website in EN and PL

With more detailed solution descriptions and industries sections.

Secfense pitching for New York customers

During the VentureOut program.

Secfense shows its technology to UAE customers

During the webinar hosted by CYBEROUX.

Secfense is deployed in one of the insurance companies in Poland.

The insurers applications got protected with strong authentication and the system administrator got better control over the authentication process security.

Secfense is invited to run a webinar at Data Protection Academy.

This time Marcin Szary from Secfense has introduced FIDO alliance to a webinar audience and explained how to take advantage of a phishing-resistant web authentication standard called FIDO2.

Two big banks sign up for tests with Secfense

After initial remote work crisis was handled more and more companies decide to reach out for strong authentication solutions. Two globally known banks reach out to Secfense to test our product.

Remote work accelerates the interest in Secfense User Access Security Broker

Due to the forced work-from-home our inbound traffic grows and Secfense is invited to to test drive our solution at one global insurence company.

Host a webinar together with Zaufana Trzecia Strona

Secfense is invited to host a webinar together with Zaufana Trzecia Strona – one of the most renowned and respectable cybersecurity portal in Poland. Within 2 days more than 450 people registers to the the webinar and the interest about fast MFA deployment exceeds our expectations. In result of it two PoCs are scheduled just days after the webinar.

Recognized by AVLab

Secfense is recognized by AVLab as a company that can play an important role in making 2FA adoption much easier. The story was originally published on the AVLab website in Polish and is now also available in the English version on our blog.

Cybersecurity report by Xopero Software

Secfense is invited to cooperate on creating a cybersecurity report by Xopero Software. Secfense creates content related to MFA to the report that is then distributed to the majority of cybersecurity specialists and new technology decision makers in Poland.

Partnership with Nitrokey

To scale FIDO2 in enterprises and SMEs. The story behind Nitrokey goes back to 2008 when the founder and CEO Jan Suhr with some of his friends decided to create an open-source USB key called “Crypto Stick”. This initially non-profit open-source project evolved to become one of the top companies specializing in open source security hardware.

Secfense wins a deal

With one of the largest transportation company in Poland

Full Site Protection.

Secfense can protect the entire application now. By default, Secfense User Access Security Broker stands before the application and strengthens the user authentication process. With the most recent upgrade a person on the client site can now set up Secfense to be placed one step earlier, protecting not only the login process, but the entire application.

2019

PoC for a large IT organization from the public sector.

Secfense provides a recordable, manageable and secure connection for a large number of users to the external web applications.

PoC for a large e-commerce business.

Secfense protects the connection of a large number of users from external locations to applications in a shared data center. The goal was to replace the VPN with a solution that does not require installation of plugins on the application or client side.

Moving to a new location.

The lecture during the CyberSecExpo in Katowice, Poland

The largest cybersecurity fair in the CEE region

V4 Startup Force acceleration program

Secfense selected to participate in the V4 Startup Force acceleration program

CyberTechEurope

Startup Pitch during CyberTechEurope in Rome, Italy

Baillie Gifford Discovery Competition

Baillie Gifford Discovery Competition for startups in Kraków

Krynica Economic Forum 2019

Pitching for enterprise customers and investors during Krynica Economic Forum 2019

Sites dedicated to vertical industries

Secfense has launched sites dedicated to vertical industries (healthcare, financial services, corporate)

Starting a partnership with Cherry GmbH

The producer of biometric hardware. Adding Secfense to its solution partners list allows Cherry customers to take advantage of WebAuthn standard.

Introducing a new web authentication standard

(also known as FIDO2/WebAuthn) into Secfense User Access Security Broker. WebAuthn is a standard that allows local authenticators (smartphones and biometric hardware) to be used in authentication process instead of passwords.

Secfense has pitched at Heart Summit in Warsaw

For corporate r&d specialists introducing Webauthn. This results in getting an invitation to a private event Ballie Gifford Discovery Competition and various follow-up calls with corporate customers.

Secfense has pitched at Pirate Summit in Cologne

For top European VCs. This results in new venture capital funds showing interest in our startup and scheduling some follow up meetings for the next funding round.

Interview on the Security Weekly

Podcast with one of ‘top 10 information security influencers’ Paul Asadoorian.

Top 10 Multi-Factor Authentication Solution Providers

Secfense listed as one of the Top 10 Multi-Factor Authentication Solution Providers in Europe 2019

Live demo for healthcare audience

Live demo for healthcare audience during DMEA show in Berlin. Pitch competition results in starting some interesting talks that will lead to future partnership.

Participation in a pitch competition

Participation in a pitch competition during Forum Innowacji in Tarnów. This results in Secfense being selected to Małopolska Startup Rocket program that gives us free participation in a technology show in Milan in 2020 and an opportunity to pitch during Economic Forum in Krynica later in 2019.

Secfense introduces microauthorizations.

Starting a partnership with Advatech

The software company from Poland. Advatech sales team becomes the extension of Secfense offering Secfense User Access Security Broker to their new and existing customers.

Starting a partnership with Palanto

The software company from South Africa.

Secfense gives live demo at Finovate

In London in front of +1,000 audience from fintech industry.

2020

Moving from a MVP to production version

of Secfense User Access Security Broker
YT

Antoni Sikora

Joins the team to become a person responsible for international outreach, growing sales and new business development. Antoni has previously worked for big software house as well as US-based marketing startups.

Introducing reporting functionalities into an MVP

And building a first version of an admin dashboard.

MVP is developed with new functionality.

TOTP-based methods (e.g. Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator) are now available for codeless and scalable deployment.

First MVP is made.

A tool allowing to deploy U2F security keys (e.g. Yubikey or Feitian) to any web app without coding.

The company is officially founded and registered

Soon after the succeful demo for the Bitspiration Booster, a startup accelerator that becomes first investor of Secfense for the seed round.

https://bitspiration.com/

Secfense receives funding and expert guidance

From Bitspiration Booster: Paulina Mazurek & Wojciech Burkot (ex-Googlers who established Google R&D Center in Krakow, angel investors), Andrzej Targosz (experienced founder and investor), Oskar Grzegorczyk (supported IT & shared services growth in the region).

Idea behind Secfense is born.

Tomek and Marcin work together to come up with the first concept of user access security broker. First MVP is made.

 

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/secfense

Testimonials

We are faced with new challenges every day. We must always be one step ahead of the attackers and know what they are going to do before they do it. We are convinced that the User Access Security Broker will bring security to a new level, both for those working at the office and from home. For us, working with Secfense is an opportunity to exchange experience with developers who put great value on out-of-the-box thinking.

Krzysztof Słotwiński

Business Continuity and Computer Security Officer

BNP Paribas Bank Poland

As part of the pre-implementation analysis, we verified that users utilize a wide range of client platforms: desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and traditional mobile phones. Each of these devices differs in technological advancement, features, and level of security. Because of this, and also due to the recommendation of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (UKNF), we decided to introduce additional protection in the form of multi-factor authentication mechanisms based on FIDO. As a result, users of our applications can log in safely, avoiding common cyber threats such as phishing, account takeover, and theft of their own and their clients’ data.

Marcin Bobruk

CEO

Sandis

We are excited to partner with Secfense to enhance our user access security for our web apps. By integrating their User Access Security Broker, we ensure seamless and secure protection for our applications and systems, delivering superior security and convenience to our customers.

Charm Abeywardana

IT & Infrastructure

Visium Networks

Before investing in Secfense, we had the opportunity to talk to its existing clients. Their reactions were unanimous: wow, it’s so easy to use. We were particularly impressed by the fact that implementing their solution does not require the involvement of IT developers. It gives Secfense a huge advantage over the competition, and at the same time opens the door to potential customers who so far were afraid of changes related to the implementation of multi-factor authentication solutions.

Mateusz Bodio

Managing Director

RKKVC

Even when the network and infrastructure are secured enough, social engineering and passwords can be used to gain control of the system by attackers. Multifactor authentication is the current trend. Secfense addresses this and allows you to build zero trust security and upgrade your current systems to passwordless applications within minutes, solving this problem right away,” said Eduard Kučera, Partner at Presto Ventures and cybersecurity expert – former Director in hugely successful Czech multinational cyber security firm Avast.

Eduard Kučera

Partner

Presto Ventures

One of the biggest challenges the world is facing today is securing our identity online. That’s why we were so keen to have Secfense in our portfolio. They make it possible to introduce strong authentication in an automated way. Until now, organizations had to selectively protect applications because the deployment of new technology was very hard, or even impossible. With Secfense, the implementation of multi-factor authentication is no longer a problem, and all organizations can use the highest standards of authentication security.

Stanislav Ivanov

Founding Partner

Tera Ventures

Two-factor authentication is known to be one of the best ways to protect against phishing; however, its implementation has always been difficult. Secfense helped us solve that problem. With their security broker, we were able to introduce various 2FA methods on our web applications at once.

Dariusz Pitala

Head of IT

MPEC S.A.