Cyberattacks are on the rise, with cyberattacks increasing by 38% in 2022 as bad actors steal identities and wipe out bank accounts at alarming rates. But consumers and businesses are becoming wise to the risk, which is in turn driving sales for providers of virtual private networks (VPNs).
One good example is Sekur Private Data Ltd. OTCQX: SWISF | CSE: SKUR | FRA: GDT0, a Swiss-hosted secure and private communications platform provider. It seems to be seeing explosive growth, with subscriber sign-ups for its Swiss-hosted privacy VPN, SekurVPN, up more than 100% month-over-month in September.
Given the sheer number of attacks committed online and on mobile devices, that might not come as much of a surprise. According to a Clark School of Engineering Study, a hacker attack occurs every 39 seconds. And, in 2022, the potential total loss from cyber attacks was more than $10.2 billion, up almost 50% from $6.9 billion in 2021, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report for 2022.
Identity theft collectively costs consumers billions of dollars and untold hours repairing damaged credit. So consumers and businesses are turning to VPNs to protect them online – and Sekur’s sales are soaring because of it. According to Forbes, two-thirds of surveyed U.S. internet users use a VPN to help protect personal data, one-third use a VPN to mask their internet activity and 80% use a VPN for increased cybersecurity.
Only The Beginning?
For Sekur, 100% subscriber growth could just be the beginning. The company expects exponential growth over the long term as it adds more enterprise features to its offering and upgrades to the next-generation Internet Protocol standard IPv6. A new ad campaign slated for October or early November should create more buzz as well. Plus, Sekur plans to sell its VPN products through resellers later this year. All of those initiatives should position the company well in the years to come.
“Our prime directive is to provide private and secure communications for everyone,” said CEO Alain Ghiai when announcing the subscriber growth. “The results also do not reflect yet the full scale launch as we have just completed a prelaunch and are testing the waters. We expect this to be a big success once we launch it on social media and digital paid media.”
Organic Search Booming
The strong demand isn’t only for its VPN. Sekur.com is seeing a surge in traffic, too – up about 100% in the past month and 650% in the last two weeks.
Importantly, the surge has been driven by organic searches. The more people that find Sekur.com on their own, the less the company spends to acquire customers. Currently, about 5% of organic website visitors become customers – a number Sekur expects to grow, lowering overall acquisition costs. The company is also going after the small and medium business market, of which there are over 30 million in the U.S. – which will further lower customer acquisition costs. SMBs often tend to have multiple users, and a single customer win can result in several subscribers.
On top of all that, Sekur expects to launch a complete communication suite in the first quarter of 2024, adding encrypted voice calling tool SekurVoice and encrypted video conferencing solution SekurPro to its offerings. Those new products could drive sales as well.
Privacy Matters
The internet can be a scary place for many and consumers and businesses are becoming increasingly conscious of the risks presented by it. They connect with VPNs before they do their banking, shopping and socializing online. As the threats grow, so should sales of VPNs.
Sekur seems well-positioned to capitalize on this demand. It uses the latest encryption technology through a proprietary infrastructure and doesn't rely on any big tech hosting providers. Plus, the company only offers Swiss IPs. Swiss privacy laws are considered among the strongest in the world for many reasons – for example, in 2010 the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland found that IP addresses are personal information and that under Swiss privacy laws, they may not be used to track Internet usage without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
Sekur’s offerings are geared toward those who value privacy and want their personal information to be safe online. In today’s increasingly connected world, that could — or maybe should — be all of us.
Featured photo by Fly: D on Unsplash.
This post contains sponsored content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.
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