About Faction

Faction Communications Corporation was founded by industry veterans with decades of experience and unique insights spanning the fields of cybersecurity, networking, digital media and privacy. We are both entrepreneurs and concerned citizens of the United States and the world who are no longer willing to accept the status quo. Faction can not and will not solve every problem in this arena. But we hope that it can make a difference for each of us in our every day lives.

Our Mission:  Security and Privacy for Everyday Users

Faction Communications is dedicated to building platforms, apps and tools that enable every day users and small to mid-sized organizations and groups to achieve security and privacy for their networking, devices, communications and data.    We strive for our products to be:

  • Private and Secure
  • Easy to Use
  • Always, always controlled by YOU
  • Our Guiding Principles

    These are the principles that we and our products stand for.

    • Without Privacy, There is No Security. They are two sides of the same coin. In order for us to protect anything in the modern, connected digital world, there has to be a way to ensure absolute control of connections, communications and data by human end users. That applies both to individuals and small groups, and large organizations.
    • Never Trust the Cloud.   Given the architectural flaws and vulnerabilities at the foundations of the Internet, nothing of significant value that is stored there in an unencrypted form can be protected.
    • Bring Your Own Keys.   You wouldn't give the keys to your home to the government or corporation - much less criminals and hostile state actors.  Every day users and organizations should have the ability to create and control their own encryption keys and use these in a comprehensive way to protect their own privacy and security.
  • Our Company Story

    Faction Communications is the product of 30 years of experience, knowledge and vision of its Co-founder, CEO & CTO, Dave Rand. His career and accomplishments spanning networking, privacy and cybersecurity gave Dave a unique insights and understanding of the core challenges in these areas, and shaped his vision on restore some basic foundations for privacy and security of end users in the digital world.

    After spending years observing, studying, testing and thinking, Dave focused on three core problems that drive the lack of privacy and security we all experience today.

    Centralized Control

  • When the Internet was first designed and formed over three decades ago, it was intended to provide a way to connect computers to other computers - to be decentralized. Between then and now, it became massively centralized, yet very little has changed in the basic security architecture of how devices connect and who controls that.

  • Networks and Connections are Visible and Vulnerable

  • With Internet Protocol, network addresses and traffic are visible, and connections are insecure by default.

  • Data is Vulnerable

  • Data has become the lifeblood of every digital application - and our entire lives both on and offline.    And yet it mostly lies around unencrypted on both endpoint devices and cloud servers, vulnerable to loss, theft and exploitation at all times.

  • Faction brings multiple innovations and advances in these areas. It will not solve every problem, but thanks to Dave's insights, experience and inventive mind, Faction brings together a set of tools that enable every day end users and small organizations to leverage fundamentally sound and secure networking and data encryption at all times to protect their most important communications and data. Most importantly of all, Faction eliminates the centralized vulnerabilities that are at the heart of our networked world today and literally gives each person the keys to control their own privacy and security.

    Our Founder

    Dave-Rand

    Dave Rand
    Co-Founder

    Dave Rand is a Silicon Valley technologist, serial entrepreneur, CEO and CTO with a 30 year track record of successful products and patents spanning networking, privacy and cybersecurity.   Dave’s unique insights and understanding of both core technical challenges and user needs shaped his vision to restore the basic foundations for privacy and security of end users in the digital world.  He has participated on the boards of several companies, both public and private, and helped raise more than $4 billion over his career. He remains one of the foremost cybersecurity leaders in the United States, with an ongoing role as a go-to expert within the industry.

    More About Dave Rand

    Our Co-Founders

    Geoff Halstead

    Co-Founder 

    Geoff Halstead is a visionary entrepreneur, product strategist and Chief Product Officer for Faction.

    As CPO at Circle Security, Geoff innovated with a team of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and executives on a breakthrough cybersecurity threat prevention platform and API that combines Zero Trust credential free continuous cryptographic MFA with end-to-end data encryption both in transit and at rest on endpoint devices with zero attack surface in the Cloud. 

    Prior to Circle Security, Geoff was CPO for Connexient. which you can think of like Indoor Google Maps & Navigation for hospitals and healthcare networks.    Geoff helped take the company from a napkin sketch to defining and leading a new space, with over 30 healthcare network clients, and acquisition by Everbridge (then sold to HID Global).

    Geoff was an innovator and leader in the formative years of the Internet, both in pioneering online distribution of digital music and as Co-founder and CEO of TrafficStation, a precursor to Waze.  Geoff graduated from Yale University, where he captained the Rugby Team.

    Ben Quinones

    Ben Quniones

    Co-Founder

    Ben Quinones is a successful attorney, serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor to high velocity start-ups.

     Ben is currently CEO of Pakal Technologies, Inc. Ben provides Strategic Advisory and Board services to numerous startups at various stages and arts groups in San Francisco.

    Ben graduated from Yale University and Stanford Law, and has been advising, forming, investing in and running tech companies in Silicon Valley since 1995.