Looking back to the year 2000 just after it-systems worldwide had survived the transition into the new millennium without the widely feared crash, the ‘dotcom-bubble’ had burst and shook the New Economy.

At the same time, the Bluetooth-standard had its first appearance in consumer products, and Microsoft published its operating system ‘Windows 2000’.

It was at that time that Befine Solutions AG was founded in Freiburg im Breisgau in Southern Germany.

It started with an idea. The team’s experience in the IT-world illuminated a universal problem in the business world: There was no easy way for companies to exchange messages and large files in a simple, fast, and secure way with suppliers, customers or partners.

The focus of the company’s research was on email which had established itself as the universal way for communication in the business world. Their goal was to find a way to enhance the technology of the email systems so widely used, whilst getting rid of its’ known disadvantages and using it in a cost efficient, controlled, and secure way.

This realisation identified a universal problem that was found across all industries in small and mid-sized companies as well as large enterprises. On the one hand email was and is a universally accepted standard for communications, easy to use and globally available. Every user with a computer, smartphone, or tablet-pc can communicate with any other regardless of the device, operating system, or email application.

On the other hand, today’s standards and demands, especially for security often go far beyond emails existing capabilities. Almost every company or authority must exchange confidential files electronically – and often even the written messages in emails are of a sensitive nature and should be protected. It is at this point that security concerns come into play: email systems are a prime target of attack for criminals, hackers, and industrial espionage. Nine out of ten cyber-attacks start with an email!

Taking a close look at how email works, it’s nothing more than a digital postcard: it’s cheap and quickly delivered, its content, however, is readable for everyone who carries or intercepts it, and whilst it usually arrives, you do not know the route it has taken.

In addition, the sheer amount and size of email attachments unnecessarily strains the email systems in companies. Often attachments surpass manageable sizes, create excessive cost – and are in many cases confidential.

Examples of such attachments are contracts, patient files in clinics, case files from court, or construction drawings of automotive suppliers.

Typically, they also include PowerPoint presentations, PDF files with graphs, spreadsheets, or even video files.

It is in particular those large digital files that can’t be sent or received via email and are rejected that lead employees and other stakeholders to use other means to exchange files.

Products like USB sticks, file-sharing solutions, or cloud-services, which they know from private use are readily available.

The result: the frequently invoked ‘Shadow-IT’ – the unwanted use of non-authorised software and tools in companies to exchange data.

Complex file transfer and email encryption solutions try to eliminate those risks.

However, they often fail at striking a balance between security, usability, and cost.

Even though there are effective and established encryption methods that can be used for email they lack three basic demands:

1. First, they usually involve complicated acquisition and set-up of public and private keys, and therefore cannot be used ad-hoc between two communication partners.
   
   
2. Second, there is little focus on usability for the average office user or private customer. Many solutions are too complicated to use and therefore are not used at all.
   
   
3. Finally, many solutions carry very high purchasing costs as well as maintenance costs.

Download now »The Cryptshare Story«

A great deal has happened at Cryptshare since the team started its project. At first it was meant to be a custom-made software for a single blue-chip client. Today this German software-house from the Black-Forest area develops and sells solutions to companies world-wide that helps them support, optimize, and protect their business processes.

Cryptshare Version 1.0 was shipped to the first customer in 2007. In 2010 Befine Solutions created a dedicated sales team for Cryptshare and started cooperating with the first trading partners. Since then the number of customers is steadily growing and today there are more than 4 million certified Cryptshare users in more than 30 countries worldwide.

Not only is the software a growing success, but also the company behind it grows continuously: currently over 70 employees are working at Cryptshare and the number is increasing fast. Moving to a bigger office in Freiburg at the end of 2017 to has made room for new colleagues to join and it is here the development and support (national and international) teams are located that make up more than half of total staff.

Since 2010, the company has been led by Dominik Lehr, its founder. Recently, it has been expanded to include CMO Oliver Gäng, CFO Oliver Kenk, long-time technical leader and CTO Matthias Kess, CSO Ingrid Hagen, and COO Alexander Gavrylenko.

The year 2017 was a good one for the software developer from Freiburg being honoured with the ‘Cybersecurity Excellence Award 2017’ in the category of ‘Email Security’. This annual award is given to companies, individuals, or products from all over the world that are contributing exceptionally to the field of data security.

2018 has started fast with rapid international growth in the United States, UK and the Netherlands. The regional sales teams in Boston (subsidiary) and Arnhem (branch office) bring Cryptshare as an IT-solution ‘Made in Germany’ to the American and Dutch markets. A further branch office in Great Britain is steadily contributing to the international success.

In 2020, Cryptshare was recognised by the Computing Security Awards as the ‘Encryption Solution of the Year’. That same year, as a result of Cryptshare’s ongoing success, the Freiburg offices were expanded to make more room for the growing team.  

Owner-managed Cryptshare AG develops and supplies software solutions that help companies support, optimise, and secure their email processes and the handling of large files.

Founded in the year 2000, the company now with over fifty employees has its headquarter and development team located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. There are sales locations in the UK, US and the Netherlands.

The focus is on Cryptshare, a communication solution for the exchange of sensitive business information. It makes it possible to send and receive emails and large files ad-hoc, securely, easily and at low cost. Cryptshare also offers auditability which helps companies meet compliance rules and regulations. Today more than 2,000 companies with about 4 million users in over 80 countries use Cryptshare. This success is underlined by the “Cybersecurity Excellence Award 2017”.