Company: Yubico, Inc., Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A.
Company Description: Yubico is the leading provider of simple and secure online identity protection. The company’s flagship product, the YubiKey®, uniquely combines driverless USB and NFC authentication hardware with open source software. More than a million users in over 120 countries rely on the YubiKey for securing access to networks, computers and online services.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Executive of the Year – Business Products –11 to 2,500 Employees

Nomination Title: Stina Ehrensvard, CEO and Founder

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated executive since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):

Good passwords are hard to remember and even if you create “strong” passwords, they can still be hacked. Stina Ehrensvärd had enough of this and decided to create a smart and easy way to safely login online and created the YubiKey for secure two-factor authentication. Today, her company Yubico has millions of YubiKey users in more than 120 countries, and she is working with Google and the FIDO Alliance to develop the next generation secure Internet.

User name and password simply isn't enough. Additional layers of security, for both internal employees and external users, must be deployed to ensure access to accounts remains protected. This is where two-factor authentication comes into play - combining login and PIN/password, "something only the user knows" with an additional authentication factor, "something only the user has".

Under Stina’s guidance, Yubico is a key contributor to the FIDO Alliance (www.fidoalliance.org), which continues to grow with more than 120 members (incl. Yubico, Google, PayPal, Visa, MSFT, BofA) and the development of specs for Universal Second Factor (U2F), which in late 2013, the YubiKey NEO became the first FIDO Ready U2F device. The new U2F global standards initiative focuses on scaling “smart card” technology to every internet user. When available for the public later this year, the YubiKey NEO with U2F will allow organizations across all verticals to easily incorporate high security authentication into their online services.

To authenticate, a user inserts the YubiKey NEO into a computer’s USB port, enters their login information, and touches the YubiKey NEO button to instantly verify the users identity. For mobile devices, a user simply taps the YubiKey NEO to an NFC enabled smart phone or tablet. The YubiKey offers military grade security out-of-the box, with no additional drivers or client software needed.

With Stina's leadership and work with the FIDO Alliance, 2014 is poised to be Yubico's most impressive year as the company is now currently working with 7 of the top 10 Internet companies in the world.

Since last July, Stina has given many interviews, presentations and participated on panels to educate on the future of authentication. Additionally, she has spoken on her entrepreneurial travels, why she created Yubico and her goal to make strong authentication easy and affordable for a billion Internet users.

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Provide a brief biography of the nominated executive (up to 125 words):

Stina Ehrensvard is the CEO and Founder of Yubico, and inventor of the YubiKey - a small device that makes strong two-factor authentication easy and affordable for everyone. She is visionary IT entrepreneur with proven track records of creating and bringing new technology innovations to global markets. Today, the YubiKey is used by more than a million users and 20,000 customers in more than 120 countries. Stina is an accomplished speaker on Internet identity, authentication, security and entrepreneurship and was named to Inc.'s 2013 "Woman to Watch in Tech".