Vidoop

It’s been long held that there is a substantial need to increase internet security; especially with reports of almost ten million Americans being affected by identity theft, and almost $50 billion stolen. While there are increasingly stronger methods to secure valuable information, there is still one very vulnerable area in the internet security chain, passwords. Additionally, the need to have multiple identities on the internet is cumbersome at best. One Tulsa Company believes they have the answer to these problems. Enter Vidoop.

 

Vidoop was started a little over a year ago by two friends, Luke Sontag and Joel Norvell, because of the need they saw to change the way people were secured on the internet. Luke has worked for JP Morgan Chase and WillTel Communications developing and implementing access management strategies. When Joel approached him about starting Vidoop, the timing just seemed right and they knew they were onto something amazing. “Security (on the internet) is about how strong your chain is,” says Sontag. “The weakest link is passwords.” Vidoop is designed to eliminate the consumer’s reliance on information that scammers and hackers can easily get, like passwords, by using a picture interface which relates to a series of pre-selected categories. Sound confusing? It’s not, and that’s the point. “Everyone loves pictures,” Sontag said. “Look at the success of flickr (a digital photo sharing website).” When you sign up for a Vidoop account, you are asked to select up to three categories of products and services used everyday like cars, beverages, homes, or airplanes. After filling out some additional information, the user saves his or her settings and is ready to sign into any secure website that supports the “open id” protocol.

 

Upon visiting the www.myvidoop.com website, users input their username after which a screen with a 4x3 grid of different pictures appears, each with a letter in the lower right hand corner. The user looks for items representing their category groups, such as a Schnauzer for dogs, and a cup of coffee for beverages and inputs the corresponding letters into the field at the bottom of the page. The next time the user logs in, the pictures, their locations on the grid, and the corresponding characters have changed, invalidating keystroke logging. For added security, you must have a software token installed on your computer before you can even see the picture grid. All in all, Vidoop represents a significant leap forward for internet security and has already received warm reviews. But internet security is just one of the benefits to small business owners, there’s also a revenue sharing opportunity.

 

Every website that adopts open ID and offers customers secure login through myvidoop is able to generate revenue from Vidoop’s partners who use the picture grid to advertise their products. As Joel said at a recent web conference Vidoop “pays for itself.” And it looks like small business owners and consumers alike are the ones truly profiting.