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PCR interviews BullGuard’s new CEO Paul Lipman about the firm’s retail partner revenue share scheme and his views on the evolving security software sector.
Lipman discussed the recent improvements to BullGuard’s partner revenue share scheme, revealing that the firm has tripled the number of partners in a year.
“Last year we launched a new top tier partner program called Advantage Plus,” he said. “We’ve actually tripled the number of partners in that program over the last 12 months.”
He added: “We’re also going to be increasing the amount of communication with our partners and inviting two-way communication around product roadmaps, industry trends and our programs.”
With the IoT and smart home marketing on the up, retailers are starting to stock more of these devices. In fact, PCR recently reported that John Lewis has opened the UK’s largest dedicated smart home experience at its flagship Oxford Street store. These new types of products need protection, so we asked Lipman how a security vendor like BullGuard is adjusting to protecting IoT and smart home device users.
“From a security standpoint, each of these devices represents an expansion of the attack surface,” he said. “It’s now no longer just about data security and privacy, it’s about physical security as well.
“At best, security is an afterthought for the device manufacturers.”
Lipman also gave his personal opinion on the recent Apple vs. FBI case, saying: “Technology companies, and especially security companies, need to focus on making the world more secure for our customers. So to force Apple to compromise the integrity of its products only makes the world less secure for all of us. You can’t blame Apple for strong encryption.”
Speaking about BullGuard’s share of the UK market, Lipman revealed: “BullGuard is actually focused on the assisted sale segment of the market, and in that part of the market we are number one.”
Check out the full video interview with BullGuard CEO Paul Lipman below:
