TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — At the dawn of the Web3 era, Taiwan is in a unique place to take advantage of rapid developments in digital finance and blockchain, said Jordan Forssman, COO of Taipei-based cybersecurity firm CYBAVO.
In early November, Forssman joined the Startup Island Taiwan podcast with host Jon Y from the Asionametry YouTube channel. On the podcast, they discussed digital currencies, cybersecurity and other trends related to Web3.
Forssman described CYBAVO as a business-to-business company that helps institutions manage and safeguard their digital assets. Their work is primarily to help businesses secure transactions involving digital currencies and scale online operations by implementing administrative security protocols for managing private keys.
When asked about some of the major problems or threats facing companies working with digital currencies, Forssman explained that at the start of the Web3 era, many new players are experiencing the same types of problems that larger companies dealt with in the Web2 era. For example, malicious emails as the primary risk vector for companies.
In the Web2 era, if financial information such as credit cards or pins became compromised, there was always recourse to nullify the value of that information. However, when trading in digital currencies, the “data is the value”, says Forssman.
This heightens the risk factor for businesses in the Web3 era, because once digital assets have been lost, or transacted out of the company’s wallet, they cannot be retrieved, he said. Fundamentally, the issues are the same, but now there are added layers of encryption, and security, which raises the stakes if online assets are not managed properly.
Forssman shared two surprising statistics about cybersecurity. The first is that “90% of cybersecurity incidents are the result of user error,” attributed to people making mostly honest mistakes as they learn to use new technology and systems.
On the other hand, “30% of successful cyberattacks are perpetrated by trusted insiders,” meaning that people with access to private keys or security systems abuse their access within a company.
CYBAVO’s goal is to help businesses mitigate those risks to the greatest degree possible. To do this, they have designed protocols for managing and securing the private keys for a company’s online wallet. These protocols clearly delegate the “rights of use” and “responsibility to secure” the keys within a company, while also establishing a tiered system to authorize transactions, says Forssman.
During his talk on the podcast, Forssman also spoke about how Taiwan is adapting to digital transformation. “Taiwan is in a unique place to take advantage” of Web3 developments that are just around the corner, said Forssman.
Taiwan’s geopolitical situation affords it a lot of opportunities in the near future. On the one hand, it excels in cybersecurity out of necessity. This provides an excellent basis for companies to establish themselves in the digital space.
On the other hand, Taiwan’s democratic-capitalist society allows for entrepreneurs to take risks and try new approaches to different products and services. Together, Taiwan can serve as a leader in this rapidly developing field of digital finance and blockchain technologies, said Forssman.
Forsmann acknowledged that in the Asian region, there is still a lot of red tape and bureaucracy to overcome in order to unlock the potential of blockchain. However, Taiwanese are much more familiar with these issues and can take the lead in facilitating exchanges and collaboration region-wide.
“The Web3 era is still very nascent, but it is definitely happening.” Forssman noted that lots of large companies, governments and other players are getting involved in crypto and blockchain, exploring the possibilities of things like blockchain and NFTs.
“While there are still many challenges ahead, different industries are grappling with them,” said Forssman, who expressed his excitement that Web3 is at the cusp of a rapid explosion in users and new applications.
You can listen to the entire podcast using the player above or by visiting the Startup Island Taiwan podcast on First Story. For more information on Jordan Forssman and his company, visit the CYBAVO website.
