"Over 90% of modern cyberattacks begin with a phishing email" says Guardian Digital CEO & Founder

HackerNoon: What is your company in 2–5 words?

Dave Wreski: The open-source email security provider.

Why is now the time for your company to exist?

Email-borne risk has never been greater. Over 90% of modern cyberattacks begin with a phishing email. Attacks like spear phishing, fileless malware, and zero-day exploits are becoming increasingly difficult to detect and block. Basic email protection, like the security features provided in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, is no longer sufficient to make email safe for business. Advanced, multi-layered solutions capable of anticipating and blocking known and emerging threats before they reach the inbox are necessary in this modern threat environment.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

As users of and contributors to open-source development, we share the values of transparency and collaboration. Our unique use of open-source development in email security enables us to provide flexible, cost-efficient, and exceptionally secure solutions and offer real-time updates to keep our customers ahead of the latest threats.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

I would be contributing to Internet security in another way. Before starting Guardian Digital, I was a security engineer at UPS, which I enjoyed and found very rewarding. I also love cooking and writing, so I would likely pursue these passions.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics?

I measure success in the number of malicious emails our solution blocks, protecting our clients from a potential cyberattack or data breach. I also take pride in retaining our clients, many of whom have been with us for decades, and continuing to acquire new clients worldwide.

In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom?

We offer threat-ready, fully supported protection against the latest and most advanced email threats for businesses of all sizes in all industries. Our multi-layered security system anticipates and blocks all threats before they reach the inbox, leveraging AI-based detection and expert around-the-clock system monitoring and support. Our managed services extend small businesses’ IT resources and enhance security, delivering a rapid return on investment (ROI).

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We have continued to grow our Product offering and client base over the past 2+ decades. We now offer Security Awareness Training and vCISO email security services. We have also developed an intuitive real-time Dashboard for our solution, giving businesses complete visibility and control over their email security.

Where do you think your growth will be next year?

We expect to continue acquiring new clients over the next year, as we are investing heavily in our marketing efforts and developing our solution. Our clients come to us for additional protection against today’s advanced threats that go unidentified by default cloud email security in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Our clients are looking to reduce support overhead while bolstering cloud email protection to defend against threats like targeted spear phishing and business email compromise, making our solution ideal for their requirements.

Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year.

Guardian Digital's roots are as an open-source Internet security company. It provides businesses of all sizes with solutions to common business security problems, such as user privacy solutions, firewalls, secure routers, and secure web servers.

Our founder, Dave Wreski, started his infosec career at United Parcel Service when the commercial Internet was in its infancy. Dave found a way to use open source to build and install open source security solutions in local businesses that were equivalent to or exceeded the solutions UPS was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for virtually the same protection provided by open source.

Using this knowledge, his programming and development background, and the skills learned as the security architect for UPS, Dave built a company around this idea and started selling service and support solutions to small businesses—first in the local area to businesses that needed cheap but effective networking solutions, then online to thousands of businesses worldwide that needed a secure enterprise all-in-one server solution called EnGarde.

EnGarde was our first business product, sold to tens of thousands of businesses worldwide, and set the foundation for Guardian Digital's current position.

What’s your biggest threat?

Our biggest threat is modern cyberattackers, who continue to try to outsmart the latest, most advanced security solutions. Cybersecurity is an ongoing “cat and mouse” game between threat actors and security providers. We are confident we can keep our clients ahead of the latest threats via advanced, layered open-source technology and expert system management, monitoring, and support.