For Snode Technologies’ founder and CEO, Nithen Naidoo, local really is lekker. “My biggest honour in the work I do is flying the South African flag and creating a platform to really showcase South African talent.” But just because the business is a home-grown success story, doesn’t mean that they only have their sights set on the local market.
Today, Snode secures around 8 million devices across six continents, working with everyone from intelligence agencies to large-scale uranium facilities. And the cyber security firm is also shattering misconceptions that a South African company couldn’t possibly build technologies that compete with the rest of the world.
Naidoo believes the business has managed to establish such a good name and reputation by always looking forward and trying to stay ahead of the curve. This, he adds, was one of the fundamental reasons why he launched Snode back in 2009. Many of the security controls that we use today haven’t changed all that much in the last 10 or 15 years, he admits, noting that the industry is dying for innovation because, "let’s face it, our cyber security remains a very big, unsolved problem. I'd argue that the industry still lacks innovation today,” says Naidoo, noting that one shouldn’t let savvy marketing and sales departments try to convince you otherwise.
Because there's significant demand for cyber skills and solutions, businesses are increasingly making big, bold statements about what they can deliver and how innovative they are, and customers will just lap this up. But these are often empty promises. “At Snode, we have always been very careful about saying what we mean because we value being authentic, delivering real solutions and solving tangible problems. We’re not in the business of putting in a black box or getting someone to take a software licence and then just moving on to the next deal,” he says.
“Attackers are coming up with new ways to hack our customers every day, which puts pressure on the industry to move even faster. Snode has always invested heavily in R&D so that we can stay ahead. It’s also imperative that we build a team that is passionate about the work we are doing.” Part of this passion, says Naidoo, is about seeing cyber-security differently. Here he explains that cyber security is usually perceived as something people have to do but don’t want to do, because it seemingly makes everything a whole lot more complicated. “But this is not the case. Cyber security is a competitive advantage because it allows businesses to adopt new and future technologies with complete freedom, because they can effectively manage the risks without putting a stop to innovation,” he explains.
In this business, you have to accept certain levels of risk if you want to grow, he adds. “This means that you spend a lot of time in uncharted territory and outside of your comfort zone. But this is where there’s potential to have the biggest impact. Whether it's partnering with law enforcement officials to address social ills like human trafficking and crime – which we have done in the past, quite successfully – or helping with disaster relief efforts across the country, through our research, through our work, through our technology and using our skills we want to solve really, really big problems and make the lives of Africans and South Africans better.”
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