Everykey: The device that replaces your keys and passwords @ CES 2022 - Show Notes

Everykey: The device that replaces your keys and passwords @ CES 2022

Tuesday Mar 1, 2022 (00:10:14)

Description

Do you ever feel like you're carrying around a bag of bricks when you have to bring your house keys, car keys, and wallet with you everywhere you go? What about all of the passwords that you're required to remember? And worst of all, they're constantly changing because your company wants you to change it every 45 days. And they're getting longer! How in the world are we supposed to keep track of all of these things? Everykey is here to help eliminate as many of these issues as possible.

What is Everykey?

Everykey is a Bluetooth device that replaces all of those items! Using military-grade security, it unlocks your phone, laptop, tablet, house door, car door, and other access-controlled devices when you are nearby, then locks them back down when you walk away. The system also generates secure passwords for your website accounts, then automatically logs you in when you visit a website. If you lose your Everykey, don't worry! You can remotely freeze it so no one else can use it.

The Everykey team was started by a group of graduates from Case Western Reserve University. They were inspired to create the product after they saw how much time and hassle people go through every day just to keep track of their keys and passwords. Everykey is their solution to this problem!

How does Everykey work?

Everykey uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to communicate with the devices that you've authorized it to unlock. When you're in range of a compatible device, it will automatically unlock. When you walk away, Everykey will automatically lock it again. It also uses 128-bit AES encryption to keep your passwords safe and secure.

To get started with your device, all you need to do is download the app and create an account. Then, just pair your Everykey with your devices and start using it! It's that simple.

How does Everykey compare to its competitors?

Everykey is the only Bluetooth device that can unlock your house, car, and other access-controlled devices. It also has the added security of password generation and website login automation. Other competitors include key fobs, RFID tags, and passwords stored on phones or computers.

Key fobs are small plastic devices that you carry with you to unlock your car or house door. They're often used in place of a traditional key and are available from a variety of brands such as Yale, Kwikset, and Schlage. However, they can be easily lost or stolen, and some models require you to remove them from your keyring in order to use them.

RFID tags are similar to key fobs but don't have any physical form. They can be attached to your keyring, placed in a wallet, or worn around your neck on a lanyard. RFID tags use radio waves to unlock devices and are available from brands such as Mastercard, Visa, and American Express. However, they can be easily scanned by anyone who is close enough, and some models require you to have the tag within inches of the device in order to unlock it.

Passwords stored on phones or computers are vulnerable to hacking and theft. If someone gets access to your phone or computer, they can see all of your passwords without having to crack any encryption codes. Everykey eliminates this vulnerability by using military-grade security that is impossible for hackers to penetrate.

Who is Everykey for?

Everykey is for those of us who have trouble remembering passwords. With its 2 factor authentication, you can eliminate the need to remember your passwords. Instead, you can simply use the key. It is also for those whose passwords change all the time. When your password changes for work, or your email, you're still protected and your workflow doesn't have to change. But, Everykey is also for those who carry too many keys. The device is designed to be able to help secure your home, car, and more, with partnerships with other security products.

Summary

Everykey is available now on the company's website. To learn more about the company or the key, or to purchase your own, head over to the company's website.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central and Christopher Jordan of The Talking Sound.

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Participants

Scott Ertz

Episode Author

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Interview

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Transcript

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Erin Hurst (00:07)

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Todd Cochrane (00:21)

You know, when I read this next company's name, my brain automatically runs to alcohol. And it's it. Those of you that are watching, maybe you'll make the correlation. But I want to welcome Chris Wentz, the CEO of Everykey. Do you know what I was thinking about from the alcohol side?

Chris Wentz (00:41)

Oh no, I don't get the reference. But thanks for having me.

Todd Cochrane (00:44)

I was thinking about Everclear. But anyway, you're with Everykey.

Chris Wentz (00:50)

Yeah.

Todd Cochrane (00:50)

Yeah.

Chris Wentz (00:51)

You know, we're in Ohio and Everclear is actually not. It's illegal, I guess.

Todd Cochrane (00:51)

Yeah.

Chris Wentz (00:52)

Because it's like such a high alcohol content.

Todd Cochrane (00:58)

So we've got a Buckeye in the house. You got a Spartan right here. So well, it's all good. We're all good friends. So tell us about Everykey.

Chris Wentz (01:07)

Yeah, so Everykey. We are solving the age old problem of passwords and keys being very insecure and inconvenient. I have this big, bulky keyring that I have to take with me everywhere I go. I hope it didn't hit something out there. I also have a lot of different passwords, right, so many different passwords that I've had to write them all on this piece of paper in order to remember all these dang passwords. And at Everykey, we want to get rid of all this broken and outdated access control technology, and replace it with something better. Introducing the world's first universal smart key, Everykey. When Everykey is close to your phone, your laptop, your tablet, the door, your house, your car door, your bike lock or anything else that requires a key or password to unlock, Everykey unlocks it for you. And then also logs you into all of your different website accounts and Apps accounts that you use throughout the day. Anything from a social media account to an email account, a bank account, anything that would require a username and password to login with. And then it locks everything back down when you walk away as well. So you don't have to worry about somebody else using your different key and password enabled devices when you're not around.

Christopher Jordan (02:09)

Interesting.

Todd Cochrane (02:10)

Now this guy knows how to do a demo.

Christopher Jordan (02:12)

That's it.

Chris Wentz (02:16)

I found that's a good way to get people's attention. To set something on fire. You wake people up.

Christopher Jordan (02:21)

Now, is this just a standard thumb drive? How does this operate?

Chris Wentz (02:25)

It operates over Bluetooth. So you can actually just get close to one of your devices. I use the keyring accessory I show you but I just threw my keys behind me. We have a wristband accessory, a key ring accessory, you just have your every key on you, you're close to one of your devices. And you can just unlock it seamlessly as if there was no password at all. You can also add a second factor of authentication. So you could use this with a fingerprint or face scan for really good really secure two factor authentication as well.

Christopher Jordan (02:50)

Great. Now is that something that is I assume the fact that being bluetooth that Todd's phone would be able to see my device. Correct.

Chris Wentz (02:58)

Um, so it only works with devices that you've set it up with. So you set up every key with your devices. If you were to lose your Everykey, you could also freeze it. You just go into our app or call our customer service to kind of remotely deactivate it as well. So it's nice and safe and secure. And really allows you to have a different password for everything without having to remember what those passwords are.

Christopher Jordan (03:17)

Yeah, no. I'll let Todd ask his typical question on things that have things that have a membership.

Todd Cochrane (03:27)

So I guess the question is then, it's maybe a little early in the conversation. But what differentiates this from other products out there in the market?

Chris Wentz (03:37)

Sure. So there's other smart keys out there, like YubiKey, Google Titan Key and such.

Todd Cochrane (03:42)

Yeah.

Chris Wentz (03:43)

Great products. Most of them, you have to actually plug into your different devices. Everykey is fully wireless, you actually have a patent on one too many Bluetooth communications being used in a secure fashion for authentication. So we're actually the only smart key that's fully wireless. Connect all your devices wirelessly.

Todd Cochrane (03:58)

So I can replace my AWS authentication, Microsoft authentication with this?

Chris Wentz (04:03)

Absolutely yes. Both a hardware security key and a password manager all in one solution. That's another way that we differentiate ourselves from the other smart keys out there is that we also offer those password management solutions, all in the smart key form factor, right? Typically, with a product like YubiKey, you would have to pair that with a password manager. So we're giving you an all in one solution, which really just provides a better user experience, something that the user is gonna love a lot more, and they're gonna, they're starting, okay. And something that the user is gonna pay less for ultimately, as well, because you're buying one product instead of multiple.

Todd Cochrane (04:39)

So I can use that with my phone and my computer?

Chris Wentz (04:41)

Yeah, yeah. With your phone and your computer, your tablet, all of your different website accounts on those devices. That's what it works with today. And then, you know, tomorrow, holistically tomorrow, you know, in the near future here.

Todd Cochrane (04:54)

Yeah.

Chris Wentz (04:54)

We'll be releasing car integrations and house door lock integrations and bike lock integrations and all kinds of other cool stuff.

Todd Cochrane (05:00)

So I dropped it on the street. Someone picks it up. They see me drop it. They know Todd's cars over there, or I come out of this door. How does that keep? How's that stay safe? Until I deactivate it. What's the security ramifications of that?

Chris Wentz (05:17)

Sure. So anything that you want to add that extra layer of security on top of. You can enable Everykey two factor authentication. And that's where you just have the Everykey, that's one of the factors. Just having Everykey on you, the easiest first factor around, right, because you just have it in your pocket. And then the second factor would be a fingerprint, a face scan, or you can even just use a PIN or a password, whatever you want to use as that second factor. So you've got a really easy to use two factor authentication. Typically with two factors, it's a big pain in the butt. You get, you log in with your username and password, which we might already forget.

Todd Cochrane (05:49)

Yeah.

Chris Wentz (05:50)

And then you get a code sent to your phone or your email. Now you got to find that code, enter back into the website, big pain. You know, multi minute transactions, in a lot of cases, we've brought that down to less than a second. Just present your fingerprint.

Christopher Jordan (06:02)

It literally took me five minutes to do all of that on two devices earlier to get up and rolling.

Todd Cochrane (06:08)

Yeah.

Christopher Jordan (06:08)

Literally.

Todd Cochrane (06:09)

So cost?

Chris Wentz (06:10)

Yeah, so we charge $49 for the product, and that includes one month of subscription, then it's $5 per month after the first month.

Todd Cochrane (06:17)

Alright, so what happens if you go out of business? And I'm just. I always, always ask that question, because I got a device and all of a sudden you're using, Oh, I wear out?

Chris Wentz (06:30)

Yeah, well, we're doing really well right now, but it's been able to.

Todd Cochrane (06:33)

But it's a hypothetical.

Chris Wentz (06:35)

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. I can entertain that. So we would of course, you know, provide some kind of password export tool so that you could export your password.

Todd Cochrane (06:44)

Right.

Chris Wentz (06:44)

Import them into different servers.

Todd Cochrane (06:46)

Sure. Sure.

Chris Wentz (06:47)

We already offer a password import tool, as it stands today. And I guess there is a password export tool already within our app. It's just you have to find the specific command to access it. Yeah actually. Yeah.

Christopher Jordan (06:59)

Cool.

Chris Wentz (06:59)

But we would make it a little bit more prominent in that case.

Todd Cochrane (07:01)

So it's $5 a month after the first month. Yep. Yep.

Christopher Jordan (07:05)

Still incredibly affordable for that kind of ease of security.

Todd Cochrane (07:09)

Yeah.

Chris Wentz (07:10)

It's right in line with all the other password managers. You're really paying about the same price that you pay for LastPass or Dashlane.

Todd Cochrane (07:15)

Yeah.

Chris Wentz (07:15)

You're getting so much more features.

Christopher Jordan (07:17)

The size format is what I love. Because I'm a big micro drive user, stuff like that.

Todd Cochrane (07:23)

Can I see it?

Christopher Jordan (07:23)

I don't like carrying big, bulky drives anymore.

Chris Wentz (07:27)

Yeah.

Christopher Jordan (07:28)

That's pretty awesome.

Todd Cochrane (07:29)

So is this a prototype or is this on the market?

Chris Wentz (07:31)

This is on the market. You can buy this right now from everykey.com.

Christopher Jordan (07:35)

Wow.

Todd Cochrane (07:36)

So here's the thing. I'm going to lose this. So do you have an adapter for it to put it on?

Christopher Jordan (07:42)

It's down there.

Chris Wentz (07:43)

Yeah. I throw it behind my back. So

Todd Cochrane (07:45)

Okay.

Chris Wentz (07:45)

I'll retrieve it after we're done here. So do you have those?

Todd Cochrane (07:49)

So it does, but does it lock? Because it looks like to me that's the standard USB connection. So how do you keep that from separating from the keychain? Or is it a little holder?

Chris Wentz (07:58)

It's just a small little holder.

Todd Cochrane (08:00)

It's a holder.

Chris Wentz (08:00)

Yeah. Rubbery.

Todd Cochrane (08:01)

Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not getting loose from the connection on the holder.

Christopher Jordan (08:07)

Right. Right.

Chris Wentz (08:08)

Yeah.

Todd Cochrane (08:09)

Very, very cool.

Christopher Jordan (08:10)

Yeah.

Todd Cochrane (08:10)

Is this your guys' first show?

Chris Wentz (08:12)

No. We've been to CES a few times now. Yeah, we've been very fortunate. I'm actually here with my first mentor, Bob Sopko.

Todd Cochrane (08:20)

Oh, I know, Bob.

Chris Wentz (08:21)

Yeah. Bob is amazing. He runs a LaunchNET at Case Western Reserve University.

Todd Cochrane (08:25)

That's right.

Christopher Jordan (08:26)

Yup.

Chris Wentz (08:26)

Everykey was, believe it or not, actually an idea in an entrepreneurship class, originally at Case Western.

Todd Cochrane (08:32)

Okay.

Chris Wentz (08:32)

Well, while I was finishing my computer science degree, I was fortunate enough to meet Bob and get introduced to the entrepreneurial community of Cleveland, and they've taken us to CES a few times. We've been able to be in the Case booth a few times.

Todd Cochrane (08:45)

Well. Make sure you say hello to Bob for me.

Chris Wentz (08:47)

Yeah, we'll do it.

Todd Cochrane (08:48)

All right. Well, is it everykey.com?

Chris Wentz (08:52)

Yep. Everykey.com E V E R Y K E Y.com. And you can use the discount code DISCOUNT20 to get 20% off.

Todd Cochrane (09:02)

All right, awesome. First time we've ever had someone do a flame here in the studio.

Christopher Jordan (09:07)

That was a proper stage pitch.

Todd Cochrane (09:09)

Yeah, absolutely. Actually, there's Bob right there.

Chris Wentz (09:12)

Yeah. Bob is here.

Todd Cochrane (09:15)

You can. There is the key accessory.

Christopher Jordan (09:18)

Locks in like that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And you can still actually do so.

Chris Wentz (09:21)

Actually, yeah, we offer a wristband accessory. Very similar. Yeah. That as well.

Todd Cochrane (09:25)

Cool. All right. Like that. Well, thank you so much for coming out. Yeah.

Chris Wentz (09:29)

Thank you for having me. Yeah.

Todd Cochrane (09:31)

Good luck with everything. Yeah,

Christopher Jordan (09:33)

Thank you. Wow.

Erin Hurst (09:37)

TPN CES 2022 coverage is executive produced by Michele Mendez. Technical Directors are Kurt Corless and Adam Barker. Associate producers are Nancy Ertz and Maurice McCoy. Interviews are edited by Jo Mini. Hosts are Marlo Anderson, Todd Cochrane, Scott Ertz, Christopher Jordan, Daniele Mendez, and Allante Sparks. Las Vegas studio provided by HC Productions. Remote studio provided by PLUGHITZ Productions. This has been Tech Podcasts Network Production, copyright 2022.

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