There is a Vietnamese brand recommended by Microsoft globally.

The news that CyRadar is listed among 15 companies worldwide recommended by Microsoft surprised many people.

With the question "Why can a relatively young security company like CyRadar do such a surprising thing" on our mind, we met with CyRadar CEO Nguyen Minh Duc to find the answer.

Receiving us at the headquarters on the 9th floor of FPT Tower in Hanoi, CyRadar's leaders "poured out their hearts" and shared many interesting stories.

Working as a "boss" at a famous cyber security company, in 2013, Nguyen Minh Duc moved to FPT, in charge of a research group specializing in studying security technologies.

“Over the years of working in security, we have witnessed many cyber attacks on large enterprises that were responded to very late. If detected earlier, the risk could be reduced. And then our research team decided to develop a solution to detect cyber attacks as quickly as possible. At first, we only intended to develop a solution. It was not until 2017 that we decided to establish CyRadar Company when everything was ready. The name CyRadar is a combination of two words: Cy - Cyber, meaning cyberspace; Radar means scanning cyberspace to detect attacks,” CEO Nguyen Minh Duc began the story.

CyRadar's favorable conditions are that it has been "inside" FPT for nearly 2 years, focusing only on research and development, and has not been under pressure from business or customers.

Thanks to that, this young security company has quickly accumulated many prestigious international certificates. Up to now, just talking about anti-malware software, there have been 10 certificates, certifications, of which the most difficult is the VB100 certificate for detecting malware. International certificates have made it easier for CyRadar to work with foreign partners because they create a certain trust.

“Achieving prestigious international certifications also helps us share resources with major companies in the world . When an attack occurs in a certain country, we may not be operating in that market yet, but because other companies have “caught” it and shared information and data, we can also record it. Currently, CyRadar is a security company with a very rich data source, it can even be said to be among the richest among security companies in Vietnam,” the CEO of CyRadar did not hide his pride.

There are two typical cases of customer partners deciding to work with CyRadar because of the reason “it is one of the companies with the largest data sources”.

An Asian email security company, after analyzing several domains in attacks on their customers, was surprised to find that CyRadar was often one of the first to detect them. So they emailed CyRadar's CEO to propose a partnership to share resources.

A European company that provides network monitoring services to customers in Europe is also working with CyRadar because it is one of the companies that detects cyber attacks the earliest and has the richest data sources.

In addition, some other partners, both in Europe and the US, also contacted to cooperate in sharing or acquiring resources when they saw that CyRadar's resources were relatively good.

In particular, CyRadar has been listed by Microsoft among the 15 recommended brands worldwide.

“This is the hardest thing we have done. The remaining 14 companies are all very big, some with up to 30 years of experience, and you can recognize them immediately when you hear their names. Therefore, being on the list of 15 companies is a great source of pride. This will be a favorable premise for CyRadar to expand its operations to the international market,” CEO Nguyen Minh Duc expressed.

It took CyRadar nearly 2 years to do this, with the first step being to become a member of the Microsoft Virus Initiative, which includes companies specializing in anti-virus software. After that, it had to meet many other criteria and requirements.

It is known that at first Microsoft's recommended list had 40 brands, now it is down to 15, and the list continues to be purified every year.

Currently, there is no company in Vietnam that is on the list recommended by Microsoft, although there were many other companies that specialized in developing anti-virus software before CyRadar was born.

With capital supported by FPT for the first 2 years, the CyRadar team can confidently develop solutions and services without having to worry about "working and making ends meet".

Having a certain advantage in the early stages compared to other startups, but that does not mean everything goes smoothly. The young director also has many headaches because of problems related to the "bread and butter" of dozens of brothers in the company.

The biggest difficulty is fierce competition in the information security market. “Although the awareness of information security of domestic organizations and enterprises has been raised, the annual budget for information security is still quite modest, mainly used to invest in equipment from foreign companies. It is also quite difficult for Vietnamese software and solutions to compete with foreign companies in the Vietnamese market. Vietnamese enterprises only have an advantage over "foreign competitors" in the government sector, with strict requirements for suppliers, and Vietnamese enterprises are more proactive and flexible in developing solutions according to the requirements of the Ministry of Information and Communications as well as state agencies", CEO Nguyen Minh Duc confided.

Another major difficulty, according to the CEO of CyRadar, is information security and confidentiality personnel. “This field requires deep expertise. Banks, corporations, and large organizations can pay very high salaries to a few good employees. If new graduates can do the job, they are willing to pay up to 60-70 million VND/person/month, even 80 million VND. Therefore, it is very difficult for startups to recruit and retain employees. This is a common difficulty for businesses, especially startups. Small businesses with about 10 employees, if just a few people quit, will suffer, because it affects the quality of service and solution provision,” the leader of CyRadar analyzed.

Finding customers is also a big challenge for startups in the early days. Having customers means having money. Many startups have died early because they did not have enough money to continue.

“Starting a business is often a headache,” CEO Nguyen Minh Duc admitted, but also emphasized that “don’t be discouraged.”

CyRadar is continuing its development journey not only in the domestic market but also boldly seeking new opportunities in foreign markets.

(Lesson 2: Finding your own niche in a market full of "sharks")

Article: Dawn

Photo: Le Anh Dung

Design: Nguyen Cuc

Vietnamnet.vn

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