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An interview with Anup Narayanan.....

1. How did you get started in this project?

The project whatsyourisq was started about a year back and the BETA was launched in November, 2003. We shall be releasing the “Production” version of the application on Jan 1, 2008

2. What was the motivation behind starting whatsyourisq?

As an information security professional, I do a lot of awareness training programs because I enjoy interacting with people. During the course of these interactions and also adding in my experience from information security consulting, I realized a simple fact. Organizations and parents rely too much on TECHNOLOGY to mitigate security risks. But the TECHNOLOGY is only as good as the people using them. Also, the TECHNOLOGY curve in information security has peaked and there is scope for very little improvement. For example – you already have 1024 bit encryption, what real benefit does the end-user gets if the 1024 bit encryption becomes 10 times stronger?

Another big area of concern was the PARENTS and KIDS space. There is very little focus here compared to the CORPORATE security space. For example – schools lack online safety programs and at the same time CYBER BULLYING is a growing threat that hurts kids.

Hence our focal point was conveying information security awareness through a medium of awareness that is “VISUAL” so that it registers. Also just conveying information security awareness wasn’t enough. I wanted to create a management system for “DELIVERING, MEASURING, MANAGING and IMPROVING” information security awareness. Thus whatsyourisq.com was started.

Whatsyourisq provides information security awareness through visual mediums such as animations, games, posters etc. and also helps people to keep track of their awareness levels and of their employees too.

3. What are the different verticals of information security awareness whatsyourisq will address?

We have 3 principal focal points – Businesses, Parents and Kids. I will talk more about the Parents and Kids angle here. What your child does online is a genuine concern for parents. But they are not able to address it effectively due to reasons ranging from lack of time –to- looking “UNCOOL” in front of their kids. Our aim is to educate parents and give them a set of simple tools that they can use to discuss online safety with the kids.

In fact our focus stems from a simple question – “HOW OFTEN DO YOU SIT DOWN AS A FAMILY AND DISCUSS ONLINE SAFETY?”. We want to help parents do this.

We are also working on a simple but effective online safety training program that the whole family can attend together online.

4. How long the process took from beginning to end?

Starting from the vision, design, coding and release it took approximately one year.

5. Difficulties/roadblocks along the way

Being a young company resources were the only issue. But with a good team of angel investors we were able to take it from the design stage to the product stage. Also having my good friend Sreejith to develop the product at an affordable cost was a great help.

6. How long has this service been available?

This is a recently launched service and is been available for approximately 2 months.

7. Fees charged?

For the Corporate customers our fees range from $12 to $8 per user per year depending on the volume. For parents and kids most of the content is free. We may decide on a pricing model for e-learning programs on information safety for parents as and when it comes to it. But it will be on a very affordable scale.

8. Affiliate program available to website operators and bloggers?

We would love to associate with other safety and awareness providers and are open to suggestions. It could be as simple as sharing content or providing a button with a link. We await your ideas and suggestions.

We also invite security experts to write for us as starting Jan 1, 2008 we will be having a Guest Author column in whatsyourisq.com

9. Response you have gotten:

Most of the responses that we have gotten tell us that it is an INNOVATIVE and MUCH NEEDED product because as I mentioned before, there are enough security products in the TECHNOLOGY and PROCESS space. Awareness and the human mind are two areas where security is weak.

10. Any other things you would be interesting/important to readers, specifically parents and teachers

The aim of whatsyourisq is to become “COMMUNITY-POWERED”, especially in the PARENTS, KIDS and generally the FAMILY space pertaining to information security and online safety. Please participate in discussions and sharing on whatsyourisq and please talk about the online safety problems that you have faced or your concerns about your kids and what they do online. This sharing of information may be the first step towards the community sharing their solutions with you.