CEO Spotlight: Meet Emir Ceric of Meveto, The Company Transforming Cybersecurity

By the year 2025, global cybercrime is predicted to cost as much as $10 trillion or more annually. Meanwhile the threat of ransomware in particular is rising significantly. Ransomware is a cybercrime in which the threat of publishing a victim’s personal information or blocking their access to it is made unless a ransom is paid. Ransomware attacks reportedly cost the US in the region of $915 million alone in 2020.

Meveto is a fast emerging leader in the field of transforming our cybersecurity risks. We decided to chat with CEO and Founder of Meveto, Emir Ceric, to find out more about just how their technology works to better protect us all from the threat of data breaches.

Tell me about what problem it is that Meveto solves?

We are resolving one of the key problems within the cybercrime field – authentication. Annually, breaches that happen due to poor authentication – i.e. the use of passwords – represent 81% of all the cybercrime data breaches that occur, so it’s a massive problem.

As most of us are very familiar with, logging in requires us to enter our email address or username and a password, which is then sent back to the site’s database for verification. If the information is correct, we’re in, if not, we get an error and cannot access the site further.

Since most people use the same password for multiple applications and accounts, if one of these sites is hacked, then any of the other accounts with which you use the same credentials are also vulnerable to attack.

So, how does the Meveto system work?

Meveto has sought to remove the risk of authentication breach altogether, by developing a system that completely removes the need for any passwords.

Instead of using the traditional password approach, Meveto utilizes a completely different technology, called ‘Asymmetric Encryption’. This technology comprises two keys; one being public and one private, both of which are automatically generated on a user’s phone.

The public key is not a secret (hence the name), and is sent from the user’s phone to Meveto’s servers. The private key, however, is the main key that is used to verify identity and remains stored only on the user’s phone.

Because the user is the only one holding the private key, only they can unlock any individually owned online account, and since Meveto’s system only stores the public key, no access to any account can be granted without direct confirmation received from the private key on a user’s phone.

Can this still be breached? What if Meveto is hacked?

Currently, the technology being used is so sophisticated that it is impossible to breach. Using this system results in not only a safer login experience, but a much easier one, too. The beauty of this technology is that, even if Meveto itself is hacked, the hacker will never have access to anyone’s private keys, as the Meveto server only stores the public keys, and both are needed to access anyone’s accounts.

What are the consequences for companies who choose to stick with passwords?

Password authentication technology is an antiquated system that quite simply leaves you at greater risk of cyberattack and data breach with every day that passes. Laws are in place to penalize companies that don’t adequately protect their consumer’s data, and such fines can run into the millions of dollars, not to mention the loss of customer trust and reputational damage.

Additionally, there are the hidden costs associated with continuing to run on the outdated password system, i.e. providing technical support to restore accounts or reset passwords etc. Approximately 50% of the tickets/support requests that are sent to companies are about passwords and locked accounts as a result of a password authentication fail.

Can you tell me about any specific people or companies who are using Meveto?

We can’t discuss any specific clients as this is obviously not only a breach of their privacy, but it’s simply far too competitive a field to divulge that information. What we can say is that we’ve had some great success with enterprise clients, and our record thus far is having 70 companies sign up with us in just one hour.

Meveto can already be used to protect your accounts and those of the fortune 500 companies, such as Amazon AWS, Salesforce, Google G Suite, Zoom, and many more.

What has most surprised you about cybercrime/passwords during your career in this field?

Honestly, that so many professionals, CEO’s and other high level executives who have significant reasons to fear data breaches still tend to use surprisingly weak passwords. Everyone tends to lean towards what is easier to remember regardless of the risks. That is, until they fall victim to a breach themselves.

What attracted you to this cause?

I have always enjoyed helping people and I think it’s important to always look for opportunities to give back. Data breaches through password authentication hacks is one of the biggest problems globally when it comes to the safety and security of personal identity, because everything nowadays is online. People’s private photos, medical records, banking, personal correspondence – it’s literally all available to the next opportunistic hacker in the current form that we manage digital identification verification, and it’s simply not nearly secure enough.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I usually start my day with an update from my team on our current progress regarding new features, etc. Then I review all of our inbound requests from our sales/marketing department. We currently have, on average, over 150 companies requesting meetings with us every single day, and that doesn’t include all of the new subscribers that are signing up every day either directly or via email, so it’s always super busy.

What are Meveto’s long-term goals?

Now that would be telling! In all seriousness though, in such a competitive market, we do like to keep our cards close to our chest on this one, but suffice to say that we have some exciting developments in our sights.

Our mission at Meveto is to create a safer web experience for everyone. We are starting with Authentication, but it won’t stop there. Watch this space.

Final thoughts

There are always new technologies emerging that are attempting to fight the good fight when it comes to counteracting the threat of cybercrimes. While it is only a matter of time before hackers find a novel way to breach some of these new technologies, the approach from Meveto does seem to be particularly genius. Enabling us to verify our identity without physically having any of our secret passcodes or passwords stored online in the first place seems like an option well worth pursuing.

To keep up with the latest news from Meveto, follow Founder and CEO Emir Ceric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eceric/