Asvin Provides Cybersecurity for the Internet of Things (IoT)
- Juan Diego Parra Castillo
- 28. Juni 2022
- 23 Min. Lesezeit
New Blog
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
Executive Summary
We interview Mirko, CEO of Asvin a cybersecurity startup from Stuttgart, Germany. During the interview, we touch on data leaks in Star Wars, vulnerabilities in IoT, vulnerabilities in supply chains, and even in space (think cube satellites). Asvin provides many tools to uncover and fix these vulnerabilities. Mirko is also a cybersecurity podcaster at Hackwerk, which you can also hear on our internet radio station www.startup.radio.
Starwars fans may remember that death star was destroyed due to a data leak. Mirko Ross, Founder and CEO ASVIN, Podcaster Hackwerk
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Botnet operators can take over millions of devices by simply scanning the internet and following up with a brute force attack.Mirko Ross, Founder and CEO ASVIN, Podcaster Hackwerk
The Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, July 28th, 2022, at 15:00 CET (9 am ET)
Everybody who is buying on Instagram [or any social media site] followers: You are feeding the botnet industry. You are feeding the cybercriminal organizations. This is one of their income streams.Mirko Ross, Founder and CEO ASVIN, Podcaster Hackwerk
The Audio Interview
You can subscribe to our podcasts here. Find our podcast on your favorite podcasting app or platform. Here are some of the links to subscribe.
The Founder
Today we have fellow podcaster, cybersecurity entrepreneur, and EU cybersecurity specialist Mirko Ross (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirko-ross/) as a guest. He is part of the team behind the cybersecurity podcast Hackwerk — Hosted by Tyler Cohen Wood, and Mirko Ross (also available on our internet radio station www.startup.radio). Of course, he is also an entrepreneur, CEO, and Founder of ASVIN (https://asvin.io/). He is also working or has worked for several EU bodies, including being a Member of the IoT Security Expert Group at the EU Agency for Cybersecurity.
The Startup
ASVIN (https://asvin.io/) is a Stuttgart, Germany-based cybersecurity startup. They are in partnership with the DXC, Allianz für Cybersicherheit (Alliance for Cybersecurity), Startup Autobahn Plug & Play, and more. ASVIN has a strong team of c-level executives, of which Mirko is the most visible, but also Raphael Yahalom (Affiliated Researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is quite famous. Learn more about the team here https://asvin.io/company/our-experts-for-cyber-security/
The company already won many awards. Just to mention a few:
German Startup Cup Cybersecurity #1 in 2020
Winner it-sa Award for best cybersecurity startup
Cybersecurity excellence award winner 2022
Venture Capital Funding
Asvin raised 2 m € of venture capital as seed funding in the Spring of 2022. They are open to talking to investors for the next funding rounds.
Asvin Is Hiring for IoT Cybersecurity
You can learn more about the open positions here:
Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:
Further Readings / Additional Resources
Feedback
We are always looking for ways to make the show better. Please take this opportunity and share your feedback with us! You can also suggest topics or interview partners that you’d like featured on future episodes by leaving a comment below — we would love to hear from YOU!!!
The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
Automated Transcript
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger [00:00:05]:
Welcome to startuprad.io. Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews, and live events.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:20]:
Hello and welcome, everybody. This is Joe from startuprate.ao, your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany. Today, bringing you another interview, this time in cybersecurity, together with fellow podcaster, Mirko Horos, who's today my guest. Hey, how are you doing?
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:00:38]:
Hi, thanks for having me in your show.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:40]:
Oli, my pleasure. We may tell a little bit about you. And I would just skim a little bit the surface of your podcast because you're part of the team behind the cybersecurity podcast called Hackback.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:00:58]:
Yes. Sure.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:59]:
Which is, of course, also available on our Internet radio station startup.radio together with Tyler Cohen Wood. And, you're also an IoT cybersecurity member for the European Union age you have been for the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity. So let's go a little bit through your life and how a Star Wars fan became a cybersecurity expert. Because for everybody who's not seen this, behind him there is some some Star Wars stuff in the background of the video.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:01:36]:
But that's a good point. We can talk about Star Wars and what is the relation of Star Wars and cybersecurity. Maybe people who are Star Wars fans out there know that the Death Star, had been destroyed by a data leak because it was the secret plans of the death death star from the empire had been leaked to the rebels and the rebels got this plan. And, by that, that ability to find, the exploits and vulnerabilities of the death Star and destroy the Death Star. That's the relation between Star Wars and cybersecurity. And of course, we see a lot of data leaks currently, ongoing. And believe me, it's not only the evil empire who is in danger. It seems to me that everybody of us and the economy and the society is in danger of data leaks and cybersecurity breaches.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:28]:
That's a pretty nice interpretation. I've actually never seen Star Wars as a story of cybersecurity, but from today on, I will.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:02:39]:
Yes. But coming back about my history, I mean, I started, hacking as a teenager. And this is maybe a usual, way often people are getting into cybersecurity if they are interested in computers, interested in computer system, and then you're starting having a look on it. And if you have a look on it and if you're curious, you will find as well the the weak spots of such systems and then you may can level up to certain access. Normally, you will not get as a regular user. So that was my step into cybersecurity. And then afterwards, I mean, I never had been at the evil side, but as well, I'm very closely related to to the, cybersecurity community and hacker community, even a member of the KAOS computer club, which is the biggest hacker community in the world. I'm closely related to hacker ethics and the hacker community.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:03:38]:
So that's my background. And with that background, when I was starting starting working with IoT, Internet of Things, and helping companies to step into the Internet of Things, it was, on a certain level of my career, very clear that this will be not getting into a good direction if we will not fix the cybersecurity issues in the internet of things. And that's currently the point we are now. I mean, we have several vulnerability seen in the past, with connected systems. Systems are getting exploited. Companies are getting into danger. Data is lost. Even the critical infrastructures in danger and stuff like that.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:04:22]:
So a lot of things is going on with this bloody Internet, which is connected everywhere. And well
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:28]:
I see. Going a little bit back, what I found interesting positions are including member of the ENEZA IoT expert group that was for the European Union.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:04:46]:
Yeah.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:46]:
Kocher, AIOTI, distributed ledger working group. You have been an expert consultant for European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and you're a board member of the Twins Foundation in Brussels. My brain always blues a circuit Brussels, beer and chocolate.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:05:10]:
Yes. And, I mean, Belgium is awesome. Beer, chocolate and, French fries.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:19]:
French fries. Yes.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:05:21]:
Yes, exactly. Yes. There are some stations in my career where I'm always working with communities and I always like to work with as well, public authorities and regulatory makers, because it's very important that we are getting an interchange of ideas and that we share what we know from the cybersecurity community with other people. And that's why I'm still looking for close relations to, this kind of organizations like the European Cybersecurity Network Agency, the European Commission. You have named some, and I'm still working in several projects, with these organizations where we are looking how we can increase cybersecurity in the future. And if you notice organizations, they are not very quick usually. So there's a lot of talks and negotiations in the background. But if they are on a certain direction
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:06:22]:
Mhmm.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:06:22]:
They have the force to increase cybersecurity by regulations, and then they are really powerful. So and, that's why I think it's very important that the communities in the cybersecurity space are in a close, interaction and relation with this big, regulatory, vessels and vehicles we have out there. Mhmm.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:06:45]:
What what what I found interesting is that you're not only in cybersecurity, but you're also combining this with distributed ledger and IoT. I do understand IoT in the past especially has been a pretty weak spot because they're like zillions of little tiny devices, bigger devices, who are delivered to the new owners. And in some kind in some cases, you, in the past at least, could not even change the password. And I do believe 90% of the owners don't do it, like, from from the company, setup. And so they're very easily taken over. And I would also be curious about your perspective on cybersecurity and distributed ledgers because, what a lot of people think, well, it's on many, many computers. And so it's also secure because there are many, many copies out there. But I'm not sure that there's a % security out there.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:07:50]:
No. That's, it's a good topic. So first of all, what you have, mentioned are this zillions, trillions, whatever, insane numbers of connected devices. And we'll we'll get more and more because this is the way how the Internet, is developing. So everything will be connected. Even maybe the chair we are both sitting on will be connected, your coffee cup, what else? It's the internet of things. It's the internet of everything which will be connected. That's why we have IP six for the people out there because we need more IP addresses for all this trillions and zillions of stuff out there.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:08:32]:
If things are insecure on large fleets and you've mentioned, for example, IP cameras, and this, this are really some of the worst products out there because they are mass products produced very cheap, used by consumers, with low security by design in there. And of course, these are the prior victims for botnet operators because it's easily you can scan the Internet for such devices and then just simply do a password brute force attack to find out, is it the factory setting password, admin one two three four, admin admin and so on. By that, you can take over as a botnet operator millions of devices, and you can use them for your own purpose. And the main purpose, for example, is, denial of service attacks for rent. That's one I've learned that as well, many, social media accounts like on Instagram or Twitter, operated by IOT botnets. So it's as well, the revenue stream for the botnets operators And for the higher level IOT devices, let's take someone with more CPU power. In the future, it could be maybe a connected car. They're prioritized, for example, as well for crypto mining, hijacking and stuff like that.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:09:58]:
So, so the world, for cyber criminals is wide open, with open IoT devices.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:10:04]:
I'm actually not surprised when you talked about the the, Instagram, Because, when I post something on Instagram within ten second within ten seconds, there is something like a comment promoted on blah blah blah. I'm diligently deleting those accounts and blocking those people from ever commenting again. But it's it's, it's like a wave. I've seen that in the past on Twitter as well. For my feeling, it has become a little bit less. But actually, what I vividly remember is when we posted, English translations of bad news about Wirecard very, very early in the scandal. There was also a lot of pushback, semi in a semi automated way. And I thought, that is quite interesting that somebody really, tries to organize campaigns on social media for that.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:11:10]:
I mean, post something with the hashtag Bitcoin on any social media challenge, and you will see immediately all the bots jumping on that post and you can easily identify, bot accounts by just, posting with some hashtags where the bots are monitoring and go into interaction, which is, I think, rather remarkable is that everybody out there who's buying Instagram accounts. And I know maybe there's some listeners who are doing that. I mean, you can invest a hundreds, bucks and and and buy your 10,000 followers for that. If you do that, you're feeding the botnet industries. You're feeding the cyber criminal organizations, because that's their rev that's one of their revenue streams.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:11:59]:
Mhmm.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:12:00]:
It's done by Hijek device. So, you as a single person out there who just wants to have more follower, and I completely understand the desire to have more follower, you just think, well, I'm buying buying that from a click farm or whatever, but these are really highly organized criminal infrastructures in behind.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:21]:
What I also experienced, you remember the days of what they call the big Twitter perch when they before the IPO really got rid or after the IPO, really got rid of a lot of, those, spam and bot accounts. In a time before that, apparently somebody didn't like us. And within, I think twenty four hours, we had apparent, scam, spam accounts of more than a thousand who followed us with within twenty four hours. It was becoming so bad that we reach out on Twitter with a tweet, Hey, Twitter, please help us.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:13:05]:
Yeah. Because it's bad for the reputation of your account. I mean, you don't need to use rocket science analytics to find out how many spam accounts and bot accounts are following, towards your own social profile. And if we talk about social profiles and people who are buying followers, to be honest, this this is shiny. This is a shiny, nice picture for the first few. But if people really do a deep dive into your accounts, they will immediately identify that these are mostly, paid paid followers. And, I mean, there is no reach for yourself
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:13:44]:
Mhmm.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:13:45]:
Except except for, you know, for in insane number of followers. So it makes no sense to me to do that. But, however, it seems to me some people have the desire. So they are feeding they are feeding a cybercriminal industry.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:13:59]:
Mhmm. Mhmm. And as a founder of Asvin, you are also fighting that you are a cybersecurity company. I I realized you are oh, one thing. We we completely forgot to talk about the security in the distributed ledger.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:14:22]:
Oh, yes. Okay. First of all, why we and I like the distributed ledger idea. This is not about that this is a more secure way to store and proceed data than in any other system. That's a that's a wrong perception. The main idea is that it's more resilient, towards, for example, manipulation, because you can do, this integrity checks between all parties who are operating a ledger. That's number one. And the second one, it's a decentralized network.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:14:57]:
So it's more difficult to tier down a d s decentralized network than a centralized network. So tearing down a powerful network of ledgers as an attacker is almost impossible, while tearing down a centralized service, for example, by Adidos. It's just a matter of size of the weapon you are using to a specific server address and the capability of the defender, how he how much he would like to invest on DDoS defending, methods. So, that's why I personally like the lecture idea as well. It turns the Internet back from a centralized system, which we have seen, currently in the past with the cloud and other stuff that more and more power had been centralized in the web. With the ledger, we can go for a decentralized system, which is as well a way of democratizing, the Internet again.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:02]:
I do believe that's the way the Internet is going into the future a little bit or at least more decentralized.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:16:11]:
Yeah. And cybersecurity is a strong driver for that. Mhmm. Because, the question is no more in the future future about how can can you protect a 100%? It's impossible. The question will be more about, is your infrastructure resilient enough to stand aside by attack?
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:34]:
Mhmm. And my understanding right now is it's more resilient the better distributed it is.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:16:43]:
That's one of our assumptions.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:46]:
Uh-huh. I see. Before we get into your startup company, second attempt, I was curious, can you tell for the audience out there what topics you and Tyler are discussing on your podcast? And when you are actually putting episodes live?
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:17:08]:
Yeah. So normally, first of all, we try to do that every two weeks. Somehow, sometimes we are more busy or even like, you know, like the guest set list is sometimes a pain to get really good people into the show, and we want to have a high quality show. So what is the idea of the show? First of all, Tyler, she's in Washington, DC. So she's bringing in The US perspective, which is very important. And as well, she brings in the diverse perspective on cybersecurity because to be honest, cybersecurity has been in the past a male white dominated space. So having Tyler in the show, bringing in her diverse perspective and bringing in her, let's say, Texas style of solving the problem, it's a very good mix because I'm more the European white guy, born and educated in in cyber hacking communities and stuff like that. So let's say that's the tension and the storyline of our podcast show.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:18:16]:
And we always invite one, usually one guest, sometimes two guests into the show to discuss a very specific cybersecurity topic, for example, botnets. And by that, we are looking to invite the most excellent people in their space to talk about this topic, but not doing a nerdy tech deep dive topic. Just like having a conversation like you and me, so that people are getting a better understanding of, what is the problem? How can we solve it? What is the future? How do I protect myself? Is it affecting me? Is it affecting you? Who are the bad guys? Why they are doing that? The hell. And sometimes even we are, we are developing own evil ideas. Like if I'm a bad guy, I would do it like that way. Not to give people out there hints to do that, but as well to have a look over the horizon because we need that in the industry.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:19:23]:
I vividly remember it from a time, as a consultant. Big four, if you go into, forensics, the guys who help to solve problems, prepare investigations and stuff like that, those guys are the ultimate arch criminal. They have seen so much. You can just hope that they never turned bad. It's it's incredible.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:19:52]:
Yeah. And it's, it's a little bit really the same. I mean, we had some ideas how we can completely erase, human life from, from earth just by combining cybersecurity and let's say medical technologies. So of course, but you need this super evil evil thinking because otherwise we are so focused on the current and we don't see what's upcoming next.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:20:23]:
It kind of reminds me, when you guys start, your, your, regular show, are you guys going, Hey, Mico, what are we going to do today? The same as every night, Tyler, conquer the world, like Pinky and Bright.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:20:37]:
Destroying the world or something like that. Yeah. It's and I mean, that's one aspect. But the second aspect is as well, finding always and positive ending of of each show. But just it I mean, if you are in the cybersecurity space, you can get completely desperate about the situation, but it makes no sense because if we are desperate, we can't move. So of course we need a positive ending. So what are the next steps? What are good steps? How can we make the world and the things out there better towards cybersecurity? That's as well as super important, approach. And if we fail my answer to Tyler, because she's from the yes, it's it's always my answers.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:21:23]:
Look, then let's go for the American way of solving a problem. We will just drone strike the cyber criminals.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:21:30]:
Yeah. That that that is a pretty good choice. But now third attempt. Let's talk a little bit about Aswin, your startup. I've seen you doing this in partnership with DXC, the German Alliance for Cybersecurity in German, Alliance fur Cyberseischer heit, and startup Autobahn Pluck and Play. I was pretty impressed when I went through your website, and I've seen you won many awards including the German startup cup for cybersecurity. You made number one top spot in 2020. The winner of ITSA award, best cybersecurity startup, and cybersecurity excellent excellence award winner 2022.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:22:19]:
So question up front, is it just you? Or is there a team of very, very smart people who like to play around with Star Wars stuff during work time?
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:22:29]:
No, of course, it's like being a successful venture and startup is always a team play. So of course, it's the team inbound. I'm a little bit more the front runner of the show, but it's a very skilled team, behind and it's an international team. So it's me for you. It's it's it's Rob van Kranberg, from Belgium. It's Rafael, Yalla home from the MIT and Boston. Rohit, our CTO, Sven, my co founder. So there, there there's a couple of people in the C level, which are to me the best folks I can get, thought leaders in their topics and yeah, working with them together on a venture.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:23:12]:
So to me is a great benefit and even I think for our customers, it is as well the best benefit they can get, of course, for sure. And all this excellence and awards, and you just named a few of them. Our, our wall in the office is full of awards. Great, but it shows as well that we are doing something completely, right. That we are heading to the right direction. And when we had started with cybersecurity, I mean, let's say the first steps of the company, we did early two thousand, '19, the former steps on on product development and stuff. Cybersecurity was already, I think, a emerging topic, but now it's a hot topic. And so we are at the right time, with the right products here in the market.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:24:04]:
Talking about products, I've seen you work, which especially caught my attention again, supply chain, distributed latches, IoT fingerprints. And then before you start explaining all this stuff, what is this all about? Because on your website, there's Beehive, there's ants, there are pause, there are track counts and income.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:24:28]:
Yeah. So first of all, what is our main mission and vision? So we had to look on the IoT space and we think that cybersecurity and IoT is a super mess and will become more and more super mess. So we need to provide, specific tools and services for our customers to get the things on on the right track. And by that, we have built up a suite, a product suite of different, services. One service is, for example, is how can we identify an IOT device by unique fingerprint? And this unique fingerprint is, now for the people out there, it's physical unclownable function, which means there is something in there on the semiconductor level, on the memory level of an IOT device, which can't be changed. And because it can't be changed, you can use it to create a unique fingerprint. Now why it's so important to have a unique ID of an IoT device? Well, for example, think about you're operating a factory and you're getting data from sensors out there to to control your factory. The sensors are in need of unique fingerprintings because they're essential deliverer of of data for your factory control systems.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:25:48]:
If I would be an attacker and I will just replace the sensor by myself, I can inject malicious data, for example, into your fact into the factory systems and by that forcing the factory systems to do something completely different, what they want. This could be a digital sabotage. It could be a way of of ransom. So there are many ways how companies are getting in danger. So fingerprinting and IDs of a sets are super essential at the beginning. And on top, we've built several other stuff. One important thing you have mentioned, supply chain, and this is a huge topic because many I like IP camera as well is already a complex, product, IOT product, because there are many components in there shipped from different locations and sites of the world. For example, you have a wireless LAN module in there, which comes usually from China and there is a fully Linux operating system on it.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:26:50]:
How many companies who are producing this camera? Really know what kind of software stacks are on this wireless LAN module. To be honest, not too much. And by that, as it is a complete Linux stack, you can do a lot of lot with that. And the worst things is, of course, that there are backdoors in there and data is getting leaked to other sources. But this is, let's say, a quite still a quite simple IoT product, but think about a car. A car is a super complex IoT product. Mhmm. Hundreds, thousands of suppliers at the back end, and they are supplying components where software is on it.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:27:33]:
And if you want to secure a car in the future, you really need to be sure that your soft supply chain is, safe and secure. And for this cases, we are providing solutions where you can track and trace, the provenance of software, for example, like a specific software, which is installed and running on a car. Where does the software coming from? What kind of quality management and security testing had been done, towards the software? How many hands of suppliers, had, this this particular software, in their own processing and stuff like that. So that's super interesting. And for cars, I think it's quite logical because cybersecurity is tied to safety. Safety of passengers and cars, drivers of pedestrians, of other people in the traffic. So, this is then not only about cyber cybersecurity, it's as well about safety. And you can take more and more examples, medical products and so on.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:28:38]:
So it's a huge space and software supply chains are critical.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:44]:
Yeah. I've seen you're working not only in smart cities, the industries you're covering logistics, automotive, but I also telecoms and I found space.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:28:56]:
Yeah. I mean, you know, I like space industries and space is a super, super interesting, topic towards cybersecurity. Because for the people out there who had a look in in in space industries, maybe they know SpaceX and other stuff, so the space industry as well is transforming. It's like, if you look in the past, there had been this big rockets, like a Saturn five, where you were flying to the moon, which, were super expensive, super big. And now the space industry has turned more to a private industry where small rockets with small payloads are, shot into the, low orbit space. There are many new satellites companies out there, with so called cubes. That's That's very small satellites, size of a, of a Rubik cube. That's why they called cube set.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:29:54]:
And the satellites are deployed into thousands, hundred thousands. So there are estimations that we will have, soon more than a hundred thousand, small and and cubesats in the low orbit.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:30:08]:
Mhmm.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:30:08]:
And now many of them are operated by startups and other ventures. Settlers are now built in a in a industrial level, industrial size. So they're using more and more software from the shelf, like Linux on it.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:30:26]:
Mhmm.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:30:27]:
And by that, they are as well deploying, vulnerabilities from their software supply chain on satellites, and on all these units, used to launch satellites and stuff like that. So the set so the space industry, is facing more and more all the problems of cybersecurity we have in the traditional industry as well.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:30:50]:
Mhmm. I see. I see. I see. And, basically, how he counted this is what I just talked about, all those, names associated with the animal kingdom, bees, ants, paws, track counts, and eagle eyes. Right?
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:31:08]:
Yeah, exactly. That's, I mean, that's our way how we name our product. And for example, if you take TraceHound, TraceHound is the way how you can track and trace software in supply chains between, different suppliers, eagle eyes the possibility to have analytics and monitoring on this, supply chains. So we have created, different sets and services which allows our customers to manage this upcoming cybersecurity challenges.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:31:39]:
Mhmm. I see. Two more questions because we are already running more than thirty minutes of recording. How you guys are currently funded? Are you open to talk to potential investors?
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:31:53]:
Yeah. We are seed funded. So we had closed the seed funding, early this year. And but that it was a it was a 2,000,000 seat round for us, which helps us to further develop our attraction this year. And, let's say with the beginning of next year. And, of course, we are open for investors because we have big plans. We want to grow. We want to scale up.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:32:19]:
So by that, we will, of course, go for a next investment round. So, we will prepare our investment offer. And if you're an investor and you're looking for cybersecurity and supply chain security, then get in touch with us and we can discuss, the details for the next round.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:32:42]:
Great. Only one more question left. Are you guys currently hiring?
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:32:48]:
Yes. We're hiring. And have a look on our website. I mean, there are plenty of positions, open. And as well, you can find me everywhere on Twitter, social on Twitter, on LinkedIn. If you think you want to step into cybersecurity, or you're an expert in cybersecurity, and, just get in touch with me, drop me a message, and then I will link you to the right persons to discuss about the position.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:33:16]:
I actually will link in the show notes of this interview your, website. It's asvin, a s v I n dot I o forward slash jobs. So that will be also available. Mico, thank you very much. It was a pleasure talking to you. Hope to have you back and a lot of more Hackback, podcasts on our radio station.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:33:42]:
Joe, thanks for having me in your show.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:33:45]:
Thank you. Have a great day.
Mirko Ross | Founder and CEO ASVIN | Podcaster at Hackwerk [00:33:47]:
Yeah. Thanks. Bye bye.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger [00:33:53]:
That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startuprad.io. Remember, sharing is caring.
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