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StrikeForce – A Cybersecurity Company Pushes Out – SafeVchat – A Secure Video Platform


Mark L. Kay

CEO


StrikeForce Technologies, Inc.

(OTCQB: SFOR)

www.strikeforcetech.com


Contact:

Mark L. Kay

732-661-9641

marklkay@strikeforcetech.com


Interview conducted by:

Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor

CEOCFO Magazine


Published – May 31, 2021

CEOCFO: Mr. Kay, according to your site StrikeForce Technologies, Inc is a unique cybersecurity company. Unique in what way? What is your approach?

Mr. Kay: We definitely have many products that we are putting out. One of them is ProtectID®, which is protecting people with our out-of-band authentication patent that we have owned. It allows people, when they get into any site or any site that they are already in, to be authenticated using their phone or a push transaction or other type. There are many other methods we own. If they used GuardedID®, that allows them to do keystroke encryption on your Windows or Mac. We also have, MobileTrust®, which is using cell phones, Apple or Android, it doesn’t matter which one you have.


The latest thing what we just came out with is SafeVchat™, which is a great product for secure video conferencing. It is the only true secure video conferencing product in the marketplace and we just finished features of it right now that are very critical to some major companies that will not use Zoom or other products of that type, since they are not as secure. We feel SafeVchat is a great product and we will be getting a lot of sales out of it. Also, so is PrivacyLok™, which is another product that has to run on your PC and PrivacyLok also adds security features to SafeVchat as well, as well as running on its own on your Windows PC.    


CEOCFO: Would a customer typically purchase all of these products separately? Is there a combined offering? How does it work?

Mr. Kay: There is no combined offering for all of them, that is for sure, and probably no one would have them all. Video conferencing is typically for the corporations that want security and also for the individual, as well. However typically, if people buy SafeVchat, they would probably also buy PrivacyLok, because the premier SafeVchat includes PrivacyLok with it at a very low cost and it protects your video, your microphone, your audio, many security features, five different security features come with that as well, which again, the other products do not offer. This is definitely what makes SafeVchat the best in the market.


CEOCFO: What do you understand at StrikeForce, on a very basic level, that has allowed you to develop products that really are secure?

Mr. Kay: We have not done anything special other than our products were built by people who are physicists and scientists and very, very strong believers in doing things in a secure way. Now, our CTO, who definitely comes from India with a lot of smarts and brains in terms of how to do these types of products has built basically all of our products and he added a lot of security to them. For instance, our ProtectID® (authentication), which is a very secure product and it is with some major companies and banks as well, right now, is a very secure product and it is the basis of what we have built SafeVchat on. Therefore, SafeVchat, a video conferencing product, is not secure by itself, but it is built on top of ProtectID®, so you do not have to buy ProtectID to buy SafeVchat, but you will get ProtectID as part of it, because ProtectID is a very secure base.


We came out with out-of-band authentication (ProtectID) before the market did. That is why we had it patented for many years and actually beat a major client on one of those patents already. We feel it is very strong and we are constantly thinking of new things that come out before they even come out to market, like the video conferencing product that we started building a year ago, before there was such a great need that is growing! Now the need is phenomenal, and I believe we will easily be able to keep up with sales once we have it fully out there, which is why we are growing now.    


CEOCFO: What is involved with implementing the various products?

Mr. Kay: SafeVchat is pretty straightforward. It is a video conferencing product that works on your browser, so you do not even have to have an application, where with most of the other video conferencing products, you have to implement an app. This works on ProtectID, which is in the cloud, so you do not have to implement anything. You just bring it up on the browser (Chrome preferred). You just hit a link, but in order to get the link you have to be secure and authenticated, as I said. Therefore, you have to have a reason to get onto it. You have to have an application of a business that wants that conference, or you can do it for yourself, but then you have to sign yourself up, sign everybody up on it, then you have to get possibly their phone number and/or email address, so they can be checked out for authentication capability. Then and only then can you get on SafeVchat. However, getting on it is the simple part. All you have to is hit a link at that point and then sign on as yourself with the phone or with an OTP (One Time Password) or some other method that you are getting in terms of security.   


CEOCFO: How are you reaching out to consumers and businesses? How are you getting attention in a very crowded field?

Mr. Kay: To be honest, right this second, we are not getting that much attention. We are just now looking at getting a major marketing company behind us and into this product. We do not have any major marketing companies on board at this time (but actually just hired American Eagle), but we are also getting a lot of money and we are going to be able to get major marketing companies and we feel that we will be able to reach out in a big way.


We already have over 6,000 shareholders, which for a small/medium company is a good size, but we can only do so much marketing. We do a lot of PR, we do social media, and there is a SafeVchat site out there. Many people are starting to read it more and more, but we definitely need to do a lot of marketing worldwide. This is a global product and we will be reaching out in the very near future. As a matter of fact, we just hired a new sales person (Brian Hart), who will be heading up all inside sales for us. We have many resellers and they have a lot of connections as well, but we need a strong inside sales person, as well.  


CEOCFO: What do you see as the few words you can tell a consumer or business, where they will understand quickly what the difference is and the various solutions you bring to the table?

Mr. Kay: We often say to people that we are a security company that builds many different secure products for companies and people and we actually want to make the world a safer place for you to compute in, to do your work in, for you to exist in, and definitely it will make it much safer for you no matter what you are doing if you are using these products in the marketplace.  


CEOCFO: Would these replace other products that people are using or be more of an add-on? Do you see partnering with other types of cybersecurity companies?  

Mr. Kay: That is a great question. We are definitely open to partnering with other companies now. When you think about SafeVchat, which is a secure video conference, of course that could replace, but does not have to replace Zoom. It could replace TEAMS, Webex and many of the others. Many companies buy multiple secure video conferencing products and we definitely could be one as well, so you do not have to replace them. However, definitely many of the schools, especially the government, are saying that they will not buy Zoom because it is not secure, where ours is. Therefore, I feel it definitely could replace them as well.


ProtectID is a great product out there in the marketplace. Many banks use certain products that we would be replacing as well. To be honest, there are at least 3 or 4 others out there, and we feel that ours is also very secure and works extremely well. It has been out there for about 16 years and we won many patents on ProtectID and a lawsuit worth $10mm.    


CEOCFO: Do you get somewhat excited when there is a breach like with the Colonial pipeline as people start to perk up about security?

Mr. Kay: Sure, plus cybersecurity is a very, very big topic right now. You see that President Biden is doing all kinds of edicts and measures and always including cybersecurity as part of it. To be honest, we are now talking to a couple of companies that are involved with the government. We are trying to get onto the GSA schedule as well and we feel that cybersecurity is very hot because it is very easy to steal.


With the Colonial Pipeline, we think we do have a solution that would prevent it. Obviously, it’s too late for that, but it could stop some people from getting hit next time. Many of our products, together, will prevent things of that nature in the marketplace.   


CEOCFO: Are you surprised that people, with so much happening and so many breaches, do not seem to do some of the basic things to be secure or do people just throw up their hands up and say it is going to happen?

Mr. Kay: It is very real; it is very true. However, using our products or using anybody’s products for that matter, you sort of have to get into certain applications in order to do certain functions. We feel if companies buy these products and put them out there, again, if you are doing secure video conferencing like ours, you have to do the security. There is no option. You cannot get lazy and ignore it, because then you will never get on.


With Zoom or any of those other products, you can get anyone’s link and get onto any video conference. With ours, you must be invited specifically and to be invited you must be authenticated and it is really that simple. Everything is encrypted. That is not the issue. It is really who are you and how do you get on it; with all those Zoom bombings that go on out there in all the schools you have to question using Zoom. That cannot happen with our product. Therefore, we feel very strongly that we definitely could prevent many of the issues and allow people to use our products. If they buy the product, they must use it.    


CEOCFO: Are people, businesses and consumers getting more comfortable with a second layer? Are people more accepting of this and even welcoming it in some way as they recognize the importance or is that a stumbling block in some cases?

Mr. Kay: It definitely used to be a terrible stumbling block. People would totally ignore it. Nowadays, people are seeing so much about cybersecurity and seeing how it hits every market that they are involved in, they are saying that something has got to be done. This has to happen easier and definitely using cybersecurity now, you do not have to copy things as much; you do not have to answer questions. For instance, we use a cell phone to get onto your network, to get into certain companies.


Years ago, the cell phone was a pain in the neck. Now, it is easy. You get a cell, you answer it, you say yes or hit enter or something and you get into your digitized video conference. That is a non-event now. Therefore, it is definitely getting easier and getting safer for people to use it. As long as you are not giving them choices, I think they will use it more and more as cybersecurity becomes a bigger issue in the marketplace today.   


CEOCFO: Do you see more of a push for some of your solutions than others? How do you stay focused when you have so many products that can be potentially helpful?

Mr. Kay: That is a great point. When we sell many of the products through the internet, so many of them sell automatically. As a matter of fact, I was surprised when I saw one of the reports from one of the companies that we sell it through, and one of our check out pages, that we sold so many products automatically out there. We update the pages that they have to read to see it, but we have not done too much about selling the products. Resellers have done some, and yet we sold many more of them. Therefore, we see many of them sell automatically on their own. ProtectID is a little more difficult, it takes a little more time. We are going to start putting more into it now, but again, as I said, SafeVchat uses it and people do not even know it, which is how we can get it out there without having to burden people on the use of it.


With SafeVchat secure video conferencing, everybody uses it, everybody wants to use that kind of product as well and they want more security, even the consumers want more security and we price it the same as all the other products in the marketplace. We feel that over time it will be used and right now it is starting to grow.


CEOCFO: What surprised you as StrikeForce has grown and evolved to where you are today?

Mr. Kay: What surprised me is that I am still here! When I first took this job, I thought this was going to be 4 years, cybersecurity is a big thing, it is going to grow, it is going to be huge, and we will be very successful. Here we are 20 years later and we are just now starting to see that happening. We are starting to see more success and I am very excited by that! I do not have to do this, yet I am so excited! I see the opportunity is huge and our products are phenomenal.


Ram Pemmaraju, our Chief Technology Officer comes up with these great products all the time, now especially, do not ask me what he is building now, because I do not want to know, but I guarantee he is working on the next big product that will surprise me and everyone else. That is probably already an issue but I do appreciate it. That is what he is brilliant in and does a great job in doing that. I am surprised I am still here, and you know what, at this point I am going to be doing this for the rest of my life most likely. I am having a lot of fun doing it! It is not a job! It is an opportunity.    

 

CEOCFO: Why should people pay attention to StrikeForce Technologies, both from the user perspective and from the investment perspective?

Mr. Kay: That is a great question! Putting it that way, we are a small company and we are going to remain small. We are now at 10 employees, we might grow to 15 or 16, max. We just started growing. We were 8 a couple of months ago, but seeing that the products are getting big and seeing how we are getting interest with the government and we are now connected to the government and starting to see some major discussions going on there, it is definitely a great opportunity for us.


Even though we are small, we have about 5 different products and all work very, very well. We have not marketed them that well, so we definitely are becoming a very big company with very strong products and the market is just now getting into using those products heavily. For instance, they so not want to use Zoom; they want to use our product and they want it as soon as we get importing done, which in beta right now and production soon. Therefore, I see an opportunity in getting these products out there and letting the people know that these products really do exist. They do not take much effort on anyone’s part to use. We already have over one million users in GuardedID and we are surprised over that.


We feel that once we start the increased and strong marketing for SafeVchat™ and PrivacyLoK™, people will see us more, they will buy from us and learn from us and be happy StrikeForce Technologies, a cyber security company is out there.


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We feel that once we start the increased and strong marketing for SafeVchat™ and PrivacyLoK™, people will see us more, they will buy from us and learn from us and be happy StrikeForce Technologies, a cyber security company is out there.
Mark L. Kay


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