One year ago, I left my comfy Architect position at a large national reseller to create Dyfnz. With no backup plan. In the middle of a global pandemic. Great timing right?
Why would I do such a thing? And at such an uncertain time? The answer is that there is another pandemic that is sweeping the globe. This pandemic can’t compare to Covid-19 in terms of health outcomes or loss of life, but it does impact the livelihood of every business owner out there. Of course I’m talking about the pandemic of cybercrime.
Cybercrime, or hacking, or whatever else you may call it has changed from the somewhat innocent pranking of the 90s, to the annoying but mostly recoverable variants in the ’00s, to the highly effective and highly destructive methods we see in use today. And what caused the pivot from annoying to destructive? Profit.
Cybercriminals are looking to make businesses both their victims and their customers. They know that even today, most businesses are unable to defend themselves from cyber-attacks. Most businesses will suffer a loss of productivity if they’re hit with ransomware. Most businesses can’t detect if data is being exfiltrated. Which means most businesses will put their trust in the hackers to be kind and restore their data when they are faced with catastrophic data loss, and will be crossing their fingers that their ransom payment is going to the correct crypto wallet address.
I’ve seen it happen too many times. I’ve been on too many phone calls with hackers who – funny enough – are very professional and business-like when they’re holding a company’s crown jewels for ransom. I’ve seen too many companies take that money that was meant to pay out a bonus, hire a new employee, or buy that new equipment, and instead give it to a criminal just to get their business up and running again. It isn’t pretty.
So – that’s why I created Dyfnz. I want to help businesses stave off the attacks, thwart the hackers, and protect their data. I want to bring enterprise-level tools, engineering, and expertise to those businesses that can’t afford to hire a fully staffed IT security team. I want to give companies a fighting chance in a war that will only continue to escalate as tools and methods become more devious and more advanced.
So to mark this one-year anniversary of Dyfnz, I’m so happy and honored to welcome Kevin Kay as CEO of Dyfnz. I have worked with Kevin in some capacity for nearly 15 years now. Kevin has taught me so much about engineering, beards, motorcycles, employee morale, and most importantly how to build a team that is effective, responsive, and determined to achieve the best customer outcomes.
With Kevin at the helm, Dyfnz will accelerate our effort to build solutions, to grow our business, and to achieve positive outcomes for our customers.