Hi there!

I'm Dan and my background is computer security, which has been my passion ever since I decided not to be a game-keeper. I worked as a researcher at Cambridge University (the old one), Deloitte, banks, hi-tech companies. I needed perseverance, resolve, and a bit of good luck to follow my dream all the way from a rural town in Czechia and do things I love.

Computer security has become part of our everyday life - we all use internet and 75% of it is now encrypted.  It became a necessary part of  many businesses as users and customers notice. If you want to be visible on the internet, for people to find you on Google, you have to encrypt.

There's a downside to it - encryption keys may expire every 3 months. If it happens, it means no one can visit or use your website - it is down. Within a second of expiry. No warning, no exceptions. It means losing business, visitors, customers, and search engine ranking. A lot of that can be automated but things do break down. I, as many others, have learnt the hard way how easy it is to lose track of whether your company websites, email servers, or applications are still up and running.

It helps incredibly when you know a couple of weeks before things break down. That's what KeyChest does. I have built similar systems for enterprises but I always felt there was a better way to do it so that it would work for you at home or small companies.

Help us give you and others at home, in small companies, a service, which makes web encryption safe! KeyChest focuses on what is important to everyone. It provides safety to your internet encryption, a peace of mind we all need in today's complicated world. 

What We Need & What You Get

KeyChest has been run as a free service since August 2017 and the intention is to provide a free core service to anyone who needs it. KeyChest has already got many users who benefit from its advance warnings so they can go to their IT support and fix problems before they start hurting.

KeyChest needs funding for three main activities:

• usability - KeyChest still needs some effort to make it really easy for everyone. It already has a great design, which leads users from an initial quick audits to robust and extensive monitoring. But its success depends on the attention to detail. 
• promotion - KeyChest can only make a difference when people know about it. I want to make it part of existing open-source automations so that many can benefit from its free service. 
• integration - KeyChest is an ideal tool to integrate other services so you can find all you may need in one place. From complete encryption management, configuration audits, to penetration testing. I teamed up with a great start-up Intruder.io to integrate the latter.

The perks include credits for KeyChest, stickers, the right to be a member of an exclusive KeyChest community of backers, and a special surprise. I am sure that unique electronic sets designed by an exceptional engineer would be a great reward - whether for your own pleasure or as a gift. If you heard of BoldPort before, you know that they design beautiful electronics, beautiful and functional gadgets for geeks. 

The Impact

KeyChest has gathered over 1,500 users since it launched as a free service in August 2017. It helped enterprises to keep track of their internet services, a patent office to keep their submission system up and running, charities to provide services to the public, and many companies to focus on their business.

However, there are 1,000,000 encryption keys expiring every day and many of them cause trouble. With your help, I want to keep improving KeyChest so that it helps anyone who needs it for free and to provide paid convenience features to those whose business depends on safety of their web encryption.

Risks & Challenges

I have been building gadgets and web services for many years. I've never given up and followed through any engineering difficulties. I have designed hardware as well as set up a manufacturing process involving companies in China, UK, and Czech Republic. I was lucky enough to work with people like Rick Dickinson - a designer of iconic UK computers Sinclair - to deliver on my promises.

KeyChest has been in making a long time before the first line of code was written. I have designed, analyzed, and built encryption management systems before. All that experience is being put into KeyChest.

KeyChest already has in place processes to manage user queries, problems and bugs and document everything that is relevant. My enterprise experience and the rigour instilled in me during my time at Deloitte will never go away.

KeyChest is already out there and you can try it at https://keychest.net.

The risk related to operations is low or medium and I'm confident it can be managed within expected margins as it has been done up to now.

There is a number of planned integrations - other web services, hardware encryption platform I developed earlier, etc. these are icing on the cake and I'm looking forward to those challenges.

Other Ways You Can Help

Any word of encouragement will be greatly appreciated. If you can spread the word, you will help me and KeyChest tremendously. Whether you mention it to a friend over a Friday pint, or to your boss who may find it useful.

If you want to get involved with KeyChest and work with me more, let me know. I'm a geek myself but it's great to know of people who want to help - whether it's the technology, business development, marketing, ... and funding.

Help make 2019 a year of KeyChest!