February 4, 2022
There’s plenty of reasons why fax technology is still around today – security, legality, proof of deliverability, tamper proof, convenience and so on. Although the idea of eliminating fax as a messaging tool in organizations and industries on a global scale has been floating around for years, the fax market has never been stronger and remains a consistently growing industry.
The IDC 2017 Fax Market Pulse: Trends, Growth and Opportunities survey found that fax usage grew by an average of 27% year-on-year – with 75% of respondents expecting fax usage to grow or remain the same in the coming years.
Clint Betts, Founder and Managing Director of Stirdie says that the idea for Stirdie was first derived for a need to provide a more modern alternative to fax technology.
However, conducting further research into the challenges that current messaging platforms face and how a solution has not yet been developed to combat fraud and improve trust in messaging, Stirdie has evolved from being an idea designed to replace fax technology into something much more – as Mr Betts describes, “a platform that changes the way people think about messaging.”
“I’d like to give users the same faith and trust in digital messaging that users have today with fax, whilst maintaining the many advantages the digital solution provides. In this modern age, there has to be a better way that people can feel safe about their messaging, their information and to keep their data private.”
Stirdie, originally named as an acronym for Secure Transfer in Real Time Document Including Encryption (STIRDIE), is now on track to be the world’s first open-source blockchain-based environment for messaging, living up to its name as being sturdy – both strong and reliable.
One of the biggest challenges with current messaging applications and platforms on the market today is the high volume of cybercrime that continues to cost individuals – and businesses – millions every year. Cybercrimes including scams, phishing attacks and fraud attempts have been increasing, with COVID-19 fostering the perfect environment for criminals to take advantage of those most vulnerable.
PwC’s 2020 Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey found that 47% of organisations surveyed had experienced fraud in the past 24 months, with the top 4 types of fraud being customer fraud (36%), cybercrime (34%), asset misappropriation (31%) and bribery and corruption (30%).
The survey also found that 3 in 10 respondents agree that they’ve been unable to implement new technology to combat fraud due to obstacles including cost, having limited resources and lack of systems.
Mr. Betts says that “as it is currently, you’re never really sure where a message (SMS) has come from. You may get sent a text from a well-known company, but still be unsure if it’s a spoofing message and not want to click on any links.”
Organizations in the banking, finance, insurance and legal industries are subject to thousands of fraudulent claims every year, with Crowe’s 2019 The Financial Cost of Fraud survey finding that global losses of fraud equate to 6.05% of the GDP, or USD $5.127 trillion.
“By incorporating modern technologies such as blockchain, we aim to combat fraud and improve trust in messaging by creating a platform which enables us to decide the level of privacy we require for our data, provide an audit trail to maintain accuracy and visibility of the flow of data and give users more control of their data in general.”
Not only will Stirdie benefit organizations around the world by combatting fraudulent activity and providing a safer way for businesses to communicate with customers, Stirdie will also have major benefits for the end-user and will provide trust and security when it comes to sharing personal information with others.
“The Stirdie platform will reduce costs for organizations and be a tool that any user can switch to, to avoid scamming and phishing attacks and gain peace of mind that their data is never being accessed by any unauthorized persons.”
Stirdie will power a suite of messaging, file transfer and cloud storage products that offer data encryption, auditability and identity verification for transactions made within the Stirdie environment. These messaging products will transform and optimize the way businesses and users communicate and create a new era of trust, transparency and accountability.
Although Stirdie has big shoes to fill, the Stirdie team are starting with the basics by working with blockchain technology and designing a messaging application that allows users to maintain control of messages with verified users. If you have any messaging or data challenges in your organization, we’d love to hear from you to make sure Stirdie meets the evolving organizational requirements for messaging around the world. Please join us in industry consultation.