Continuum says there’s money in cyber crime, but SignIn pulls us back from the brink

Exciting opportunity

Luckily, an exciting opportunity to become a security reseller has arisen, thanks to the genius of Dan Harding, CEO of SignInApp.com.

I say genius because he’s created a complex system that is easy to understand, and is one of the hallmarks of brilliance.

Most companies have one massively obvious vulnerability that you don’t have to be a Russian hacker to exploit. All a criminal has to do is visit their reception and then, when presented with the visitor’s book, quickly photograph as many pages as possible.

I can speak from personal experience of scanning the visitor’s book of a datacentre, a digital agency and a daily newspaper, and you get an instant comprehensive impression of their trading status.

Big software companies pay top dollar to competitive intelligence spies to find out what their rivals are up to. That’s arguably a borderline illegal activity but they’re all at it. Think what hackers, digital hostage-takers and blackmailers could do with that information.

SignIn offers a secure digital alternative – which is too complex to describe here. Suffice it to say that it keeps every entry private, so you don’t get to see the name, job title, company and car registration of every other visitor. Nor do you find out who they are seeing.

Who’s in the building?

This system also offers clients a good personnel management system, so in the event of a fire, the company can see exactly who is in the building.

There is a massive opportunity for a security reseller here as the system is easy to explain, simple to install and there’s a mass market for it. “You’d be amazed at the types of organisation that use pen and paper,” says CEO and founder Dan Harding.

High-tech companies are especially vulnerable. Think how many datacentres you’ve visited where the security guard is on a minimum wage and the signing-in book is open to allcomers.

By nicking information from the visitor’s book, anyone pitching for business can gain an advantage on their competitors. This can range from tailoring their own pitch in accordance with their rivals or playing some dirty trick on them. When you’ve seen how PR companies stitch each other up – and they’re supposed to be nice! – then you’ll know anything is possible.

Having worked for a reseller, Harding is likely to be channel-friendly and you could expect some sympathetic support. Anyway, I must go now – Mark Zuckerberg is in reception. At least, that’s who he said he was. He’s been down there 10 minutes, so he’s probably read the entire visitor’s book.