Identity theft is “absolutely enormous, constant and everywhere”, according to Anonyome Labs Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder Paul Ashley.

Ashley, who started the data protection company with four people and one room in 2014, now employs more than 50 in their one-floor Cavill Avenue head office, and another 40 to 50 staff in the United States.

Utilising decades of expertise in security, identity management, authentication and authorisation, cloud, privacy, and cryptography, Anonyome Labs deploys a next-generation approach to privacy through mobile and desktop Apps.

And protection need not cost the earth, according to Ashley, with their Sudo App – which supplies people with an alternate online identity – costing as little as 99 cents a month.

Anonyome Labs Co-founder Paul Ashley

“Our objective is to make people who are online be safer with their privacy settings and identity. A lot of people make it really easy to put so much of their life online,” Ashley said.

“If you go and buy something online people use our App to purchase that item. They are not putting their personal email and information out there. We call it a personal proxy. You are safer that way.

“At the end of the day we work with normal people and enterprises and provide them with software to protect them. It is about putting around a shield.

“The problem of identity and financial fraud was bad when we started in 2014. But is huge now.”

Anonyome Labs Cavill Avenue head office

Ashley, a former IBM security lab worker on the Gold Coast, said the city was home to vast expertise in the online privacy sector.

“We have a good pool of talent that understands security and privacy. It is a great base from which to be a tech company,” he said.

“People here tend to be more ‘sticky’. By that I mean that people who move to the Gold Coast love the lifestyle so they tend to stay with us.

“The Gold Coast is the heart of development for Anonyome Labs.”

The Gold Coast attracts IT professionals for its work and lifestyle benefits

Ashley said the business was now worth in the “hundreds of millions of dollars”… not that they are looking to sell anytime soon.

“We’ve worked on this business for nine years. Most startups who started around the same time we did are gone now.

“We are past the startup phase. Now we are in the growth phase. Our focus over the next few years is to increase our enterprise sales and continue to build the company up.

“The industry changes and evolves. There is no shortage of security and privacy problems to solve.”