The Enterprise Innovation & Tech Awards – the first edition of the competition for the best innovative and technological achievements in Bulgaria, organized by Enterprise magazine, will be held on June 12, 2025. The Innovation & Tech Awards will honour the best technology solutions and services created by Bulgarian companies and young talents, with a focus on creativity and great achievements.
The Digital Innovation Hub Trakia is a partner of the event and interested companies can use a promo code for a 20% discount in the application process: SME20.
It is important to note that until 30.04 you will be able to submit your entries for the awards on standard terms, and from 01.05 to 12.05, the last 12 days to apply, you will still be able to submit your entries, but at a higher entry fee.
Why should you attend?
- Recognition in the community of innovators in Bulgaria – The awards will honour the best solutions with a real contribution to their sector.
- New business contacts and partnerships – Representatives of the most active and innovative communities in the country will be in one place.
- Business development and positioning in front of the right audience – Your participation will position you among the technology leaders in Bulgaria.
- Prestigious gala ceremony with media coverage – The event will bring together leading names from business, media and institutions.
Award Categories:
If you are not sure which category your solution falls into, you can contact the competition team who will guide you. Choose from one or more of the 8 key categories according to your innovation area:
- FinTech – technology in banking, payments and finance
- Health Tech – Healthcare and Pharmacy Solutions
- Green Tech – sustainable and eco-friendly technologies
- Software Tech – software, applications and digital solutions
- eCommerce – platforms and online commerce
- ConTech – technologies for construction and infrastructure
- AgriTech – innovations in agriculture and food
- Manufacture Tech – Industrial and Manufacturing Technologies
Don’t miss the opportunity to position yourself among the best technology companies and solutions in the country! Application link: https://awards.enterprise.bg/.
Nominations
You can apply directly in one or more categories – each application is judged separately. But you can also nominate a partner whose innovation potential and capabilities you are convinced of. This is exactly what the management of EDIH Trakia did, nominating one of the most promising startups – members of the innovation ecosystem of the hub – Protecto.Solutions in the “Software Tech” category.
“Protecto” is the only Bulgarian patented cyber security solution that is undergoing technological validation by the European Digital Innovation Hub “Trakia”. The solution protects your personal data (such as passwords and more!) from visual surveillance and software tracking.
The creator of the technology and the owner of its patent is Dimitar Grigorov, a television director. “My work has taught me how people perceive visual information. Some time ago, reading a book about Swedish intelligence, one of their conclusions – “The most secret is in front of your eyes!” – made me think. This is a principle in my profession as well, because I often use techniques that direct attention in one direction or avoid another,” Dimitar Grigorov commented during his recent participation in the EDIH Trakia monthly technology webinar.
The app works for everyone – no matter the technical literacy of the end user. It’s more secure than complex passwords, biometrics, personal identification codes and most importantly – it’s no more expensive than them! Because even the most sophisticated and expensive system relies at some point on accessing or regaining access to a specific user account by entering an email (password), phone or backup code. Online banking systems often even involve entering “secret questions” such as the name of your first pet (for example), and those for payments involve a 3D code or other type of numeric combination (PIN). And it’s in these cases, in these places, that security is weakest because you’re dealing with specific letters, numbers, symbols – specific identifiers that are easily recognized or stolen through direct (visual) or remote software monitoring.
Protecto turns vulnerable credentials into the most secure form of authentication and makes the weakest part of the chain the strongest.
How does this happen? The system provides identifiers like any other, but with one very important difference. Custom settings are used, such as “Mark on top”, “Mark on bottom”, “Mark on left”, “Mark on right”, “Follow the direction of the item”, “Follow the direction of the arrow (below the item)” and similar. These settings ensure that your identifiers remain hidden because they only serve as a clue as to where to apply them in the Protecto login form.
What is the Protecto login form?
This is a user input form with 12 fields in which all ids are randomly ordered. You see where your ID is, apply the setting, and check the appropriate box that it indicates. If the setting seems inapplicable (e.g. “mark left” when the identifier is in the leftmost position), you continue on the opposite side of the same row. This way, you mark different fields with different IDs in different places on the login form each time.
The result? – Marking is unpredictable and logic is untraceable. A field may be selected for a variety of reasons – multiple ID settings may point to it in one session, and others in the next. This makes deciphering the user’s choice virtually impossible.
What does EDIH Trakia do for and with Protecto Solutions?
Awareness of the technical security variation of the solution through free access to a suite of cyber security services (white box, grey box and black box penetration tests) provided under the Cyber4AllSTAR project supported by the EU Digital Europe Programme and the INIT 2021-2027, the European Digital Innovation Hub Thrace team supports the internationalisation of technology through its contacts with other EU Digital Innovation Hubs and its long-standing collaboration with the European Cyber Security Organisation. Because the Bulgarian technology “Protecto” can be an add-on to any authentication method at home and around the world or replace it completely.
“I am not a programmer, but the concept and the patent are mine. Because it is in my capacity as a user, a user of dozens, even hundreds of technological solutions for protection, that I have experienced their imperfections and have dedicated myself to finding such a universal solution that is equally easy and effective to implement both in the process of its integration with various software systems and in the process of its use by the end user.” , commented Dimitar Grigorov.
How can we take advantage of Protecto’s features?
Protecto is now ready to change the way we think about security, the EDIH Trakia team is convinced based on its work with Dimitri and his colleagues. EDIH Trakia is extending an open invitation to small and medium-sized enterprises in the country to request early access to the patented technology, i.e. to become its “early adopters”, insofar as this is necessary for its further technical and market validation. Protecto is already changing the rules, the question is – will you be among the first to benefit?
If interested, email us at office@dihtrakia.org.