GObugfree now has an advisory board: Bug Bounty experts Andreas Schneider and Matthias Jauslin join the start-up.

After successfully founding and establishing itself on the market, GObugfree is ushering in another growth phase. The Zurich-based IT security start-up can count on two top-class advisors. Andreas Schneider and Matthias Jauslin are the first two members of the GObugfree Advisory Board, which will provide support to the management and the Board of Directors. In the coming weeks and months, further advisors will strengthen this board.

How bug bounty programmes are redefining the IT security landscape

Andreas Schneider was born in Munich and has been working in IT security since 2000. Since then, he has worked for various companies as Chief Information Security Officer - from start-ups to established regional banks to large media companies. Most recently, he was responsible for information security at TX Group (including Tamedia, 20min, Goldbach, etc.) before being appointed Field CISO (EMEA) of the international cloud security provider Lacework a few weeks ago.

It was during his almost four years at TX Group that he first came into concrete contact with Bug Bounty programmes. "We were among the first companies ever in Switzerland to have their systems checked for vulnerabilities by ethical hackers," says Schneider. It was not only about setting up such a programme, as GObugfree also offers, but especially about embedding it in the security ecosystem as a whole.

What the security experts found out during their tests was subsequently incorporated by Schneider into the training courses for the software developers of the TX Group. "You can do a lot to modernise the security ecosystem of a company and change the habits of developers. And bug bounty programmes can make a big contribution to this," Schneider is convinced.

And he sees great opportunities for GObugfree in a modern Swiss IT security ecosystem: "As a Swiss bug bounty provider with its own SaaS platform, GObugfree has a lot of potential. There aren't many companies running such programmes yet, but GObugfree will gain a lot of new customers because in Switzerland it's very important that the provider also comes from Switzerland."

Bug Bounty is great opportunity for all companies and institutions to reach a new level of security

Matthias Jauslin, an IT and bug bounty expert from Bern, got involved with the topic of bug bounty early on and was a co-founder of a corresponding Swiss start-up. He remembers: "I was working for Swiss Post when I first came into contact with the topic of ethical hacking." As a mandate manager, he was responsible for the public intrusion test of the e-voting system at Swiss Post. It was immediately clear to him that Bug Bounty was a great opportunity for all companies and institutions to reach a new level of security.

As COO, Jauslin played a significant role in building up the company, but he wanted to devote more time to his own projects. The topic of Bug Bounty still plays an important role today. He still advises companies in the area of cyber security and supports them in the implementation of IT projects. He is also a lecturer on the topic of bug bounty at various universities and shares his broad wealth of experience with students.

So in the future, Jauslin will also make his expertise available to GObugree. He says: "GObugfree has an insane amount of substance. The people behind this project are established in the cyber security world. They know what it takes to make businesses more secure and equally they know the needs of the Friendly Hackers who are active on the platform." It is this function as a platform of trust between Friendly Hackers and companies, combined with the credibility of the founding team, that tipped the scales in Jauslin's favour for GObugfree.

Schneider and Jauslin are both very much looking forward to working with the GObugfree team.