At buglab, we’re all about community. We’re a dedicated team of professionals, but we’re also a family of supportive peers. And like any family, we all have our different attributes, our peculiar quarks, and our individual ambitions.

As we continue to work towards our common goal, we’re eager to share our dreams and personalities with you. Join us every Tuesday for an in-depth Q&A with individual team members, and get to know the people behind the buglab name.

This Tuesday, January 16th, we’re going to be talking to Reda Cherqaoui, founder and CEO of buglab.

Tell me about the beginning of buglab. Where did the idea come from? What was your initial vision for buglab?

Reda Cheraqaoui, CEO and founder of buglab.

A: After completing my Master’s degree in Paris, I set up Achilles Security, a cybersecurity consulting company in Morocco. Most of our customers were in Europe and Morocco, and have been hacked in the past. Also, most companies we were working with didn’t have a budget for cybersecurity. We noticed that the pricing method we were using was not suited for small to medium sized businesses, so we started thinking about switching the business model to make cybersecurity services more affordable for the little guy.

I have been helping out companies with their cybersecurity needs since I was 16 years old, and I’m completely immersed in the problems that small to medium sized businesses are facing. For this reason, I created the buglab solution, to let certified pentesters help companies ethically secure their online assets. The buglab solution is comprised of two main facets: the contests and the vigilante protocol. Our contests benefit businesses by providing security, while challenging pentesters to find flaws in exchange for tokens. Meanwhile, our vigilante protocol is a system that allows whitehat researchers to report on system vulnerabilities of a company that isn’t one of our platform’s customers. We invite companies to reward the whitehats in the form of optional tips or gratuity when they discover flaws. It’s a way for companies to obtain recommendations for their solutions from watchful guardians at little cost to them.

Our Vigilante Protocol Smart Contract enables communication of sensitive information in a confidential and secure manner through the applicable certified national authorities, namely computer security incident response teams (CSIRT), which are administered by many countries across the globe. In addition to notifying the company in question of a vulnerability, CSIRT and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) will themselves have to triage and score it. In return, once the company marks a vulnerability as resolved, the response teams will be rewarded tokens that come out of the Vigilante Protocol Reserve(VPR), as partnerships are forged with buglab.

2. What got you interested in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies? What do you envision for the future of Buglab on the blockchain?

A: I have been following cryptocurrencies since 2010, and I’ve been using bitcoin on a personal level for years. I love blockchain because it allows everyone to be transparent, and blockchain integration has been one of the main goals for buglab since its inception. We are organizing contests that will be transparent to both our pentesters, and the companies we’re providing cybersecurity for.

Reda hanging out at the buglab offices.

3. What do you believe is the best benefit of blockchain technology? How do you believe it’s changing the world? How do you see buglab fitting into this change?

A: The possibilities of blockchain are seemingly infinite. There are so many wonderful attributes — reactive mechanics, transparency, security — but I would have to say that the best benefit of blockchain and the cryptocurrency world is its accessibility. Wherever you are in the world and whoever you are in the world, you have the ability to tap into the blockchain world. At the end of the day, that’s an important component to buglab, too. It’s our goal to provide everyone with affordable and effective cybersecurity, as we move into this very unknown yet exciting era of digital currencies and digital ledgers.

4. What do you love most about working with your colleagues?

A: I love that we’re all very different. We all come from different professional backgrounds, but we’re all moved by the same desire to help cultivate the buglab solution, and provide small to medium sized businesses everywhere with affordable and effective cybersecurity.

Buglab is a hugely successful platform because our diverse team has a wide range of skills and talent to bring to the table. Every member is a key player, not simply a spectator. We all share the same team vision.

5. There are so many awesome components to the buglab solution, but if you had to choose just one component, what would it be and why?

Competition and the leaderboard. I am very active in the white hat hacking community, so I was able to develop a heightened environment of ethical competition. I have always been a determined person, working towards achieving my goal of discovering vulnerabilities for small to medium sized businesses.

6. Describe your life using film titles.

The Last Samurai

7. What inspires you?

Batman

Reda chatting with potential buglab contributors.

8. What would your autobiography be called?

Warrior Spirit

9. What’s the last thing you watched on TV, and why did you decide to watch it?

The Last Samurai. I watch this movie endlessly, and now I can play it, and just by listening to the voice, I know exactly which scene it is. Big fan of the Samurai values and codes (bushido).

10. What was the funniest thing that happened to you recently?

One time I bought a flight ticket for an ex-girlfriend using bitcoin. I was excited to be using my cryptocurrency, and thought I totally found a deal, but the ironic thing is, she ended up missing her flight!

11. Tell us about your ideal meal. Where would it be? What would it be? Who would be your dinner date?

A Moroccan Tagine in the Atlas Mountains. Great food while enjoying those fairytale landscapes; somewhere far away from mass tourism. And I would love to be accompanied by a blind date, ha!

About Buglab

The buglab solution detects and remedies vulnerabilities on various business applications, websites, mobile applications, IoT devices , and smart contracts by transforming penetration test services into challenges, referred to as contests, for a community of independent information security consultants with certified qualifications.

The buglab project is moving towards implementing blockchain capabilities, so be sure to stay tuned for website and white paper updates, as well as project information. For project updates, sign up for the buglab newsletter. In the meantime, follow the buglab team on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, and LinkedIn.