TokenOne expands to US to tackle identity theft and fraud
Australian cybersecurity firm TokenOne has been chosen by the US National Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence to take part in a consortium dedicated to combating fraud in the e-commerce sector. TokenOne has used one-time pad principles to generate unbreakable authentication codes, and was picked alongside major cybersecurity businesses RSA and Splunk. The consortium will create a set of guidelines for the retail industry to follow for more secure business practices.

Spies using this method would send their note and the recipient would burn or swallow the page on their "pad" after deciphering the text, as the paper was made of celluloid or rice paper.

For TokenOne users, this means they only need to remember one secret pin and then an app will generate them a unique password upon every use.

"The problem with passwords is we all have too many of them, so we write them down, or tell someone else," Mr Cuff said.

"From a market perspective, we operate through a distributor in Australia and their resellers and we want to continue to do that here and overseas. We want to go from thousands and tens of thousands of users to millions and what we really want to do is get rid of 100 billion passwords."

Making business more secure

The consortium tackling fraud in e-commerce is aiming to develop a new set of guidelines to help the retail industry do business more securely.

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A 2016 study by Javelin Strategy and Research found e-retailers were spending more than 7 per cent of their annual revenue combating fraud.

TokenOne, which was founded in 2013, has already been backed by Singtel Innov8, along with some of Australia's wealthiest families and former Commonwealth Bank chief information officer Bob McKinnon.

The start-up is going through a capital raise at the moment and is near closing a $5 million round, targeting family offices, high net worth individuals and strategic offshore investors, rather than venture capitalists.

The company has also secured retired FBI assistant director Charles "Chuck" Archer to its advisory board.

Mr Archer said hundreds of millions of people had been the victim of data breaches due to weak or stolen passwords.

"From my years using one-time pads myself as an undercover agent in the FBI, TokenOne's clients can be confident they are protected by the most secure alternative to passwords I have seen," he said.