Sydney-based tech company Tide Foundation has taken out the Cybersecurity award at the InnovationAus 2024 Awards for Excellence for its breakthroughs transforming the inevitability of a cyber-attack to the impossibility of them occurring.
The InnovationAus 2024 Awards for Excellence were presented at a black-tie gala dinner at The Venue Alexandria in Sydney on Wednesday night.
Tide Foundation was awarded the Cybersecurity gong for its flagship TideCloak product, a world-first identity, immunity and access management system that can protect from malicious cyber attacks.
The Cybersecurity category was sponsored by the Australian Computer Society. The award was presented on the night by Australian Computer Society director of corporate affairs and public policy Troy Steer.
TideCloak is based on Tide Foundation’s breakthrough technology, dubbed “ineffable cryptography”, allowing a user’s data and devices to be secured with keys that no-one will ever actually hold in full, making it impossible for malicious actors to access them.
These keys are generated and operated in secrecy across a decentralised network of servers operated by separate and independent organisations, none of which hold the whole key or know what it unlocks.
This creates, as Tide Foundation calls it, “cyber-herd immunity”.
This move away from the centralisation of cybersecurity does away with the key flaw of current approaches in that “someone has to be trusted with the keys”, Tide Foundation co-founder Michael Loewy said.
“It’s a fundamental breakthrough in cryptography, lab-tested by three of Australia’s top universities,” he said.
“Ineffable cryptography solves the fundamental trust problem in a way that wasn’t possible before and provides a new path to solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges, like cybersecurity and privacy – particularly with the explosion of AI.”
Tide Foundation has landed an Australian Research Council grant, and is also working with leading institutions including Wollongong University, RMIT University and Deakin University.
It has also partnered with NTT Global, which is using TideCloak with its enterprise and prospective clients.
The end goal is for TideCloak to eventually become the new global standard for cybersecurity, digital ownership and authority.
The other finalists in the Cybersecurity category were Outcomex, Cyber Security Certification Australia and Kaine Mathrick Tech.
The InnovationAus 2024 Awards for Excellence are supported by the Australian Computer Society, Investment NSW, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Technology Council of Australia, TechnologyOne, National Artificial Intelligence Centre, CSIRO’s ON Innovation Program, Reason Group, Q-CTRL, University of New South Wales, South by South-West Sydney and IP Australia.
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