Security Technology Innovation

Mobilized by Failed Systems: QWERX's Startup Story

John Ellingson
John Ellingson
a salmon swimming upstream

This week is DC Startup Week, and we are looking forward to connecting with our community of entrepreneurs and funders. The rapid pace of these events is efficient and energizing, but it doesn't always allow time to share our startup stories. Every founder has one, and these stories draw the line between what started as an idea or question and the passion and vision required to undergo the long, hard work of building a business. The founders at QWERX have a shared experience that drives our passion and dedication to mission.

Like so many in the National Capital Region, we were victims of the massive cyber breach at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In that history are the roots of our technology and mission. After dissecting the OPM breach, we discussed it with colleagues in the Intelligence and Defense communities and asked if any cybersecurity providers were offering any new and real responses to the problem. We were astonished to learn that nothing new was being offered, just the “same old/same old” solutions that had already failed so catastrophically.

We decided to analyze the problem with no preconceptions to determine the fundamental vulnerabilities that led to the OPM and most other data breaches. We concluded that effective security depended on two things that were not being addressed.

  1. Security depends on keeping secrets, but secrets cannot be kept in digital systems.
  2. Security is attached to a static credential that not only had to be protected and kept secret, but could be easily targeted by an attacker and stolen.

QWERX decided to take an entirely new approach: eliminate both the need for secrecy and the static credential that could be stolen. This was a tough challenge for anyone, but particularly for a startup. The paradigm that led to the existing security model was decades old and well-entrenched. Overcoming the failed cybersecurity legacy has been a huge challenge, but the QWERX team has been driven by the need to find real answers to the threats revealed by the OPM Breach. Our focus and passion have resulted in creating a solution that we are prepared to deliver to the market today.
John Ellingson

John Ellingson

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John Ellingson is the Chief Technology Officer at QWERX. John started his digital career with the Boeing Company working on the 747 aircraft in the late 1960s. He became a computer-literate attorney performing what is today known as forensic accounting. As the founding chairman of the ABA/YLD Subcommittee on Tax Treatment in Bankruptcy, John worked with the Congressional Joint Tax Committee to create the Internal Revenue Code Provision enabling the tax-free merger and acquisition of debtor corporations. This law became part of the Bankruptcy Tax Act of 1980. John had a national M&A practice in this area and obtained the first IRS Private Letter Ruling on this Code section. As a result of this practice, he observed a frequent element of white-collar crime in many bankruptcy cases, and he subsequently developed and patented a method to detect identity fraud. The product derived from that patent is still deployed at most retail banks throughout the U.S. today. This success started John on a path of protecting digital systems and identity management. He continued in this role with American Operations Corporation and ASM Research before founding infOsci LLC and later QWERX, Inc. John holds numerous method patents in digital system security. John was appointed to the United States Air Force Academy and medically separated before graduation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin and a Juris Doctor degree from Seattle University. For 20 years John served as a liaison officer with the United States Naval Academy and the United States Military Academy. He also served on the Service Academy Selection Boards for two U.S. Senators.

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