Cyber Threats Can Be Mitigated Through Robust Identity Systems

Cybersecurity threats are rising globally. In India, number of phishing attacks mounted by hackers is growing at an alarming space. As a result, the amount of financial loss incurred by general public is rising. Enterprises are also subjected to such threats on a frequent basis. Some reports indicate that India may lose around Rs 20,000 crore to cyber attacks in 2025. Against this perspective, many cybersecurity firms in India have come up with a host of solutions for thwarting such threats. Odyssey Technologies is one of the oldest cybersecurity firms in India, which has several solutions in the PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) space. Founded in 1992, the company’s solutions provide solid protection to individuals and enterprises against rising cyber frauds that are mounted through multiple channels including email and messages among others. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Chairman & Managing Director of Odyssey Technologies, B Robert Raja said that the company is the only cybersecurity firm that has robust solutions for protecting individual users. The listed firm is confident of rising adoption of its solutions in coming quarters as cyber attacks become frequent in India

Can you provide a brief profile of Odyssey Technologies? When did the company begin operations?

The company was started in 1992 and we are 32-year-old company now. All through, we have been a security company. We have been providing encryption-based security services to enterprises and government agencies in all these years. When we started, there were very few companies, providing these services. I came from government service background. I was in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and came out of the government job in 1992 and started this company. In the last five years, we put our products in proper cloud hosting platform. We are providing these products as services. We have brought out products, which are need of the hour today. We are providing PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) services when mobile phones were not there and when internet penetration was minimal. Our services are being used by various government agencies. We have clients like Indian Army, and various state government agencies in Rajasthan, J&K, and New Delhi among others. We also have presence in Colombo, Sri Lanka. So, we are deeply entrenched into the PKI services. Our products are also being used for tender filing by various government departments, department of company affairs and many others. Though the basic foundation behind these products is PKI, we make it very easy to use, universal and customised as per the requirement.

Please throw some light on the aspects of cybersecurity threats faced by India. How is Odyssey Technologies solving this problem?

In the last few years, we have come up with a host of products that are very relevant to the current time. If you see news every day, there is not a single day when people falling victim to cyberfrauds, and scamsters are not getting reported. This is a growing problem with such fraudulent activities emanating from all parts of the world. This has become an alarming problem now. Given the trend, common media like email, messaging, WhatsApp kind of channels and others will be completely unusable. It will be completely untrustworthy. Only now, we see banks have started using whatsapp messaging for (limited) communication. Similarly, we see a lot of cyber scams being mounted through emails like gmail. So, the real problem is not with communication. It is with individuals. And today, we have nothing to protect the individuals. Except for few lines of advice, there is nothing to protect individuals from such scams. How an individual will know that this is a scam mail? There are a few signs like usually those mails seem to be similar, or they are grammatically bad or there are a lot of typos. But not anymore as with tools like ChatGPT, those usual signs are no longer there. In this perspective, we find out that though the infrastructure exits (as PKI has been invented way back in 1976-77), they have not been properly implemented. We have so many government interfacing sites, government to citizen sites; but it is a very fractured landscape. What we have done is we have made it very simple- one user, one token. It is applicable in any device. We have also released products which enable the user to sign any mail. This also enables the receiver with the notification that the mail I signed or not. If it is signed, then the receiver can trust the mail. But if it is not signed, the receiver is advised not to open the mail. Here, we have substantially innovated. We have provided extension to all kinds of users- whether Gmail or outlook or others- to verify whether the mail is coming from a genuine person. By using our solution, the user completely insulates from any scams through originating through emails. Right now, the hackers are hiding in anonymity provided by the internet. We are able to protect individuals from such hackers in email setups.

The trickier problem, we are solving is the message. Because in message, there are only characters. So, how do you sign such messages, which are safe to open. We have solved this problem. We see a lot of interest from enterprises for our messaging solution.

There are many cybersecurity firms, which are operating in the similar space as you are working. What are the key differentiators?

We are the only firm which provides deterministic solution. While other players are providing probabilistic solutions, we are giving a definite answer. We are not saying there is 90 per cent probability that this could be a scam mail or message. We are giving definitive answer to our user through our solution. We are the only company, which is actually protecting individuals. We are focussed on public key technology, which is used by masses.

Is majority of Odyssey Tech’s business coming from private enterprises? Can you throw some light in this matter?

Major portion of our business comes from private enterprises. Yes, we serve several government agencies across the country but private enterprises’ business is the biggest one.

Are you planning to enter big markets like the US and Europe given that cybersecurity threats are universal now?

Yes, we have plans for that. In the US, scamming is a big problem. In US also, there is nothing to protect people from such scamming except advice. The need is everywhere and we have the technology expertise in solving this problem. However, we don’t have much experience operating overseas. So, it will take some time. As far as team count is concerned, we have around 200 people. We have come up with several new solutions and are expecting to grow at a faster pace in the coming years.