Odyssey Technologies Limited (ODYSSEY | 530175 | INE213B01019), a Chennai based listed company specializing in information security products and services for close to three decades has just released two software products. These products, styled xorkeesign mail and xorkeesign Spot address a very critical and global problem faced today and could potentially help 200 million email users and over a billion smart phone users.
Sometime in the last couple of years, a new term entered the popular imagination and took hold there. The term is called 'Digital Arrest'. Though not a legitimate legal term this seems to have taken firm roots in the public consciousness.
While digital arrest scams have caused significant damage, there are other kinds of digital frauds that have been on the rise as well. We have identity thefts, digital blackmail and extortion, ransomware attacks and all of them have been on the rise. In spite of security advisories and software vendors issuing security patches to their software at an increased pace these attacks are not abating. The problem is also global in nature and even the U.S citizens are given only cautions and advisories for their Toll Text and other Scams but no solution.
In his comments, Mr.B.Robert Raja, Chairman and Managing Director said, "It only shows that whatever is the root cause of these problems is, it is not being addressed by any of these measures. Odyssey, with its experience in providing security software for sensitive financial segments came to the finding that most of these problems can be traced to a single root cause, which is asymmetry of digital identity. The hackers and other bad guys know who their victims are but the victims are sadly ignorant.
The products Odyssey releases today address this problem directly. By providing a way for senders to authenticate their mails, SMS and other messages, the hackers cannot wear their convenient masks anymore and the victims now have the power.
The situation is not unlike when we were in the midst of the pandemic when all and sundry measures like social distance and wearing masks and sanitizing hands were suggested and enforced but in the end it was a vaccine that eliminated the threat completely.
It is the equivalent of a software vaccine we are releasing today."
xorkeesign Mail is a browser or mail client extension software that provides for senders to digitally sign their mails and for verifiers to verify the signatures. Odyssey offers the verification functionality absolutely free so that the entire emailing population can arm themselves against mail based phishing attacks and other scams. If the users maintain the hygiene of not acting on a mail unless the signature on that is verified, they will remain provably safe.
xorkeesign Spot, a mobile app brings the same signature feature to SMS and other messages. While there is S/MIME and other server protocols for protecting emails, there is not even any attempted protection of the short messages. Odyssey scores a global first in allowing message senders to digitally sign their messages and the recipients to verify them.
xorkeesign Spot also can be used to ask a user to prove his identity. This can happen when two users engage in a voice or video call or even in a personal meeting. While images of ID Cards, voices and even video can be easily faked, xorkeesign offers an identity that is based on cryptography and cannot be faked even by an AI.
Odyssey has also made additions to its AltaSigna Enterprise software for large organizations to distribute millions of digitally signed mails and SMS to their customers and prospects. Verification for the customers is already free.
The identity recognized by xorkeesign is digital certificate based either directly or attested by a digital certificate holder for other people in his organization thus making it economically viable for even enterprises that want to empower thousands of their employees. The organizations can also attest extended and context-specific attributes of their employees - A doctor's specialization can be attested by the hospital, a lawyer's by his law firm and a researcher's by his university. The subjects can also determine the attributes they need to reveal or hide depending on the need. This would also make the xorkeesign Spot app the answer to the problem of Social Media in ascertaining the users' age without accessing any of his other private data.
We expect between them xorkeesign mail and xorkeesign Spot will let the target user base of 200 million email users and over a billion mobile users to stay secure from scams of any kind. We also hope that as this usage increases, the scam statistics for the country will move towards zero.
Shares of ODYSSEY TECHNOLOGIES LTD. was last trading in BSE at Rs. 84.95 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 81.51. The total number of shares traded during the day was 20591 in over 117 trades.
The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 86.99 and intraday low of 82.05. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 1738932.00. |
