PODCAST: This startup, Detexian, deals with the biggest threat modern business faces: data security

The world nowadays is all about “hygiene”.

There’s sleep hygiene, kitchen hygiene and as Startup Daily learnt from Detexian co-founder Tan Huynh (pictured above) this week, data hygiene. Not being IT-inclined, and the dad who asks his kids to sort out apps on his phone, our conversation on The Problem Solved this week about what his startup does was both eye-opening and a temptation to go full-ostrich. And the latter’s the problem, because as business increasingly moves to the cloud, and legislation ramps up, from Open Banking, which kicks off in Australia next year, to the EU’s data protection laws, data security is both a cornerstone and massive risk for modern businesses. Tan Huynh is CEO of Melbourne-based Detexian, the early-stage startup he co-founded in 2017. Tan comes from investment banking and private equity developing strategies for risk control and corporate governance. He grew up in post-war Vietnam and his early academic success led to a university scholarship in the UK and then to study at Stanford, where he developed a taste for startup life. Detexian took part in CyRise is a cyber security venture accelerator program, out of Deakin University. Right Click Capital has already backed the startup and put its hand up for additional rounds. We think it’s one to watch. Many business owners aren’t aware of what their most critical business data is, let alone where it is and whether the controls and protection in place are adequate to protect it. Most critical data in fact spreads far and wide due to the use of Software as a Service (SaaS). In a world where so much valuable, personal information is stored in the cloud, Detexian helps business owners solve or mitigate risks by surfacing security misconfigurations across multiple SaaS solutions. If, like me, you’re going “huh?”, let’s put it this way: Gmail is a SaaS. Do you know if your staff have set up a redirect of their work email to a personal account? Did you know it would continue even after they’ve left and you thought they’re locked out of the account? Neither did we. So listen up.