HSD Welcomes New Premium Partner Red Tulip Systems
Red Tulip Systems, a technology start-up providing solutions for secure communications and identity management, recently became premium partner of HSD. The company is founded by two Americans, Josh Petras and Rob Sutter. Red Tulip Systems recently launched a new virtual mobile phone service for governmental and law enforcement agencies. This virtual mobile phone service is also known under the name WorkFone – available as an app for both Android and iOS – and helps agencies boost their officers’ safety in the digital age in which omnipresent surveillance and data gathering pose huge risks.
How is your company related to the security field?
Petras: "Police and security officers who lawfully use multiple identities don't have an easy way to "be" all of these identities concurrently without creating physical and operational security concerns. Many resort to buying and maintaining multiple physical phones or tablets to communicate with sources. This is difficult to manage and presents a risk of theft or loss. Our solution: We deliver virtual mobile phones to an app on a user's smart phone. These virtual phones don’t exist in the physical world, but are hosted in the cloud or on the client's servers and have real mobile numbers with voice and SMS functionality. The app enables the user to create and access a separate virtual phone for each of their identities, securely and in real time from anywhere in the world, on a single smart phone. Since the virtual phones are accessed remotely without saving data on the handheld device, there is nothing to be lost or stolen."
What are your backgrounds?
"Our backgrounds are in the private sector and government, specifically conducting these types of operations. We are a recently-formed company (April 2015) with two co-founders and are transitioning from development phase to commercial phase. We have experience in business and government operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia."
What is Red Tulip Systems looking for?
"We are seeking to partner with large police forces or national security services who conduct these source-handling or undercover operations. A typical partner would conduct counter-terrorism, counter-human trafficking, counter-narcotics, and anti-organized crime operations. From these partners we would like to talk to: the corporate buyer, typically the CIO, a department manager, and a line officer who conducts the actual operations. We see our partnership with HSD as a great way to plug-in to the European security community. We are eager to learn from and connect with other partners, contribute to the community via education, awareness and support and do our part to ensure the continued development of this important sector."