Wise Cybersecurity Risk Management (w/ John Reese)
On this episode, we’re joined by John Reese.
Dr. John E. Reese III is co-founder of QuantaSure, a communications platform designed to protect organizations with quantum-resistant encryption for secure communications now and into the future. A serial entrepreneur, John is also a dentist and U.S. Air Force veteran who served with Air Force Special Operations Command during Operation Desert Storm. He went on to build and sell two successful dental practices and launch an international company that designs and deploys mobile medical and dental clinics. John lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife, Beverly, and they have four grown sons and three granddaughters.
Christian Business Leader is the podcast for marketplace Christians seeking to explore and apply God’s will for business for the purpose of cultivating Christ-Centered Companies.
Full Episode Transcript
Heads up: This transcript was created with AI, so you might notice a few typos or small mistakes. We recommend listening to the episode for the best experience!
SPEAKER_01 0:02
Welcome to the Christian Business Leader Podcast, where Christ following business leaders explore God’s will and ways for business. This show is a ministry of the Center for Christianity and Business at Houston Christian University and features conversations with today’s Christ-centered business leaders who are representing Christ faithfully in the business world. I’m your host, Darren Scheer, and if you want to make your work, leadership, and company culture more Christ-centered, you’ve come to the right place. On this episode, we’re joined by John Reest. Dr. John Reest is co-founder of Quantasure, a communications platform designed to protect organizations with quantum-resistant encryption for secure communications now and into the future. A serial entrepreneur, John is also a dentist and fellow U.S. Air Force veteran who served with Air Force Special Operations Command during Operation Desert Storm. He went on to build and sell two successful dental practices and launch an international company that designs and deploys mobile medical and dental clinics. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife Beverly, and they have four grown sons and three granddaughters. John, welcome to the Christian Business Leader Podcast. Hey, Darren, thanks for having me. Yes, sir. So when did you first realize God wants to be involved in your work and business?
SPEAKER_00 1:28
Well, you know, uh, I I think we talked about before I got saved really in 1990. Um, and kind of a nominal Christian since then. And um, but when I when I got married to my current wife, um, one of the things that she said was, uh, do you tithe? And I said, I can’t afford to tithe, you know, and and uh and she said, Well, then I can’t marry you. And I said, What? So uh, so um I said, okay, I’ll I’ll show you. So I got a um uh I said, I’ll tithe on what I need to make. And so, like any good Christian, I took out a loan from my line of credit and I and I tithed, and uh, and and guess what? I I got exactly 10 times the amount I tithed. And uh, and so we started tithing on the gross of our business once we got married. And uh, and that kind of set us set us apart, I think, because it was it was a revolutionary change. And um, and so that’s kind of how we how we did it. So we started we started tithing on the gross of our business, and uh and you know, uh the blessings have come since then.
SPEAKER_01 2:33
Wow, and you got saved at a business meeting in 1990, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 2:39
Yeah, it was a it was a group uh network marketing kind of company that I was involved with, and uh you know, they were founded which one was it?
SPEAKER_01 2:47
Amway, Amway, yeah, yeah, yeah, which became uh quick star. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually uh was was in that. My parents were in that for uh a couple of years, and I’m telling you what, that’s that’s how I really cut my teeth on business and and sales and marketing and just stepping out and not being afraid to uh to share the value that you believe that you can offer to somebody in the marketplace. Um, I’ve I I can’t speak highly enough about I know network marketing doesn’t, you know, it’s it’s got its dark side for sure, but uh I I think a lot of people listening who have been in network marketing would would attest to the the benefits and how it’s helped them in their in their lives. Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00 3:39
Yeah, it it’s it’s extremely good uh training for any kind of business and and and also people skills and things of that nature. Um, and it kind of goes hand in hand with uh another thing. I used to um be an adjunct faculty member at MUSC, the medical school in South Carolina, and and one of the things I always said is that it should be a required course in college for kids to be a waiter or a waitress because you learn so many uh organizational and people skills. And um just a little caveat, I was actually a licensed dentist, but I was going into the Air Force right after I got out of dental school, and it was too short of a time to get a job in a dental office, and so I needed money, so I was still waiting tables. And you talk about humility, you know, here hi, I’m Dr. Reese, I’ll be your waiter tonight, you know. So it teaches you humility and it teaches you things and you know that you don’t learn. And then the same thing with the network marketing, especially one like the system we had with the Amway business, is they they they had a you know reading list and and and and tapes you listen to and all those things, and it just kind of ingrained things in your in your mindset and and the way you deal with people. And and one of the things that was that was most ingrained is that you know, I’m not gonna make a dime until you make a dollar. You know, it’s it’s it you’re you’re first. If if you don’t win, I don’t win. And if everybody doesn’t win, nobody wins. And that’s kind of the way I’ve taken for my business philosophy throughout.
SPEAKER_01 5:05
Yeah, yeah. And and so you were running a business clinic at the time when you when you got saved, right? When you were in this business meeting and when you met your wife, and so when you started to tithe on the gross of the business, this was a a dental practice, right?
SPEAKER_00 5:23
Yeah, I was already in in dental practice and um and uh was uh had a had a traditional type brick and mortar practice where I saw mostly adults the really complex uh procedures because I got a lot of good training when I was in the Air Force um in the hospital that I worked in. And uh so I did a lot of a lot of complex things. And then in 2001, we saw a need where kids um who had Medicaid weren’t being treated properly. So we started an experiment where we got an old RV, got it up, put dental equipment in it, and uh went to school and uh saw 30 kids between the end of March and the end of school that year, and we ballooned it up to uh when I sold it in 2018, we were 175 schools in 12 counties, and we saw 15,000 kids that year. Um so it was we were we were a very, very large practice, and we ended up getting uh you know acquired by a major company. But no, so so yeah, so we we tied on the growth of that business and and we and we were able to bless a lot of people because we we not only you know provided our our staff and with a with a good income for themselves, we also you know provided the good service for the nurses at the schools because the number one reason kids go to the school nurse nationwide is because of dental problems, and that’s the least equipped that they are to fix it. So we helped them. And then most importantly, we helped the the parents and then ultimately the kids because they’re the ones that needed to concentrate on learning and not on pain. And that’s kind of what what we saw. And so we we we were able to do a lot of good things. We did again, I did the same type of high-quality dentistry on the kids that were basically receiving Medicaid that I did on my patients who were paying full cash. And again, because of the systems that that I learned from the network marketing from other courses I went to on business management, we were able to take a free enterprise approach to public health problem, and everybody won.
SPEAKER_01 7:23
That’s awesome. What can you tell us a story of a time you saw God’s hand at work in your business? Or, you know, maybe we’re gonna get into quantashore, but kind of prior to this, um, at some point in your career.
SPEAKER_00 7:36
Uh, you know, it’s it’s it’s interesting because God gives me a lot of opportunities because I rarely tell him no. And so uh so I I see lots and lots of things, but it it’s just amazing. The um it’s it’s tough to say just because there’s so many, and I can’t pinpoint any one thing. But one of the one of the things that that is is it’s evident is that it’s almost like whenever I need to speak to somebody or whenever I need to talk to somebody on a on a deeper level, God always puts them in front of me. And it’s and it’s it’s amazing. I I was uh I’ll tell you uh a story, it’s probably not a great story, but it’s but it’s very vivid and it’s and it’s very uh interesting to say on how God rewards people that listen to him. Uh we we were purchasing a house from a guy who was actually a judge in the town we lived in, um, and it was kind of a contentious close because of a lot of different things going on, and uh maybe some bad feelings might have been generated. And I wanted to apologize to the guy, and I never had the opportunity. And here I was driving down the street on a really busy road, and I saw him walking down the sidewalk, and I turned my car around on that busy road and pulled in and basically cut him off on the sidewalk into a driveway and stopped and talked to him. And he goes, Hey, you know, I never thought a thing about it, don’t worry about it. But it was good because I was obedient and turned my car around and talked to that guy, you know.
SPEAKER_01 9:00
It’s a good thing he wasn’t uh dwelling on it and uh afraid of you, and you you show up like you’re about to abduct him. That’s true. Slide the the van door open. Um that’s uh yeah, that’s a great story of just just obedience and and God’s providence and and having you see him walking down the road uh to go and um and make that make that situation right. Um thank you for sharing that story. Um so tell us about Quantachure and why did you start it?
SPEAKER_00 9:36
Well, uh Quanta uh Enterprise Communications uh is the is the name of the actual company. We got Quantachure because that was a good catchy website name we could get uh at the time. Uh and uh it’s it’s designed to be a fully integrated enterprise grade and uh communication platform for um video conferences like we’re doing here with up to 50 people, including screen sharing and um uh uh chats inside the inside the the uh communication and outside, unlike some of the other platforms. Um and then we can do a voice or video call one-on-one or group, send uh chats or text messages, uh, and share documents of up to 100 megabytes, all in a totally quantum resistant encrypted environment. And so what that means is that uh most of the other platforms, if they have quantum resistant encryption, they’re not automatically and you have to turn them on. The other thing is that we are wholly hosted in the US on servers that are our own hosted private cloud. Uh, we do not store, sell, share, or monetize dent uh data in any way, shape, or form. And most importantly, we are owned, operated, and developed by people who share our conservative Christian values. So you can trust that. And the reason we started it was because back during COVID, and especially um during uh 2021, when all the people were being deplatformed and shut down, I saw a social media platform called Parlor be completely shut down and kicked off all the app stores. And then Amazon Web Services actually stole their data, held it hostage. And I saw it for what it was. It was actually a brazen act of theft and it was an assault on our rights to free speech. So I said we got to do something about that. And that’s where that’s where we started working on quantum. Went through a number of iterations, and we actually had a different name originally, and then once we deployed quantum resistant encryption back in late uh 2025, fully on all of our platforms. Uh, then uh then we changed the name to Quanta to reflect what we do.
SPEAKER_01 11:44
Okay. And Amazon did give that data back, right? They migrated it to some other servers.
SPEAKER_00 11:52
Uh, you know, I’m not sure how all that came about, but the but the delay pretty much put that platform out of business. I mean, you uh it’s tried resurgence, and I know it’s still active, but it’s has nowhere near the reach it had back then. It was kind of the go-to for for people who who didn’t follow the uh government prescribed party line on on code and other things.
SPEAKER_01 12:14
But but but like you said, you know, even if it was only for a time, you know, until the court uh you know worked out their data was held hostage, and you can’t you can’t run a business that way, especially a social media company, uh if somebody’s got your your data. Yeah, and so so what’s the difference with the cybersecurity threats now and the threat of quantum computing?
SPEAKER_00 12:44
Well, let’s let me let me walk you back real quick. And uh remember in uh in 2020, uh when COVID hit, right? So so in 2019, uh Zoom had an average of about 10 million users per day. And then as soon as all the government lockdowns happened in America, that quickly ramped up to around 300 million users per day by about April or so of 2020. Um, Teams was about the same way. They had maybe maybe 10 million roughly a day, and they ramped up at their peak to about 200 million a day. And what’s going on with uh their own stated privacy policies is that Zoom says they collect, um, and then again, you can read the privacy policies on your own, says they collect content and context from your meetings, webinars, and a whole host of other things, including your voice prints and your facial geometry. Teams collects all kinds of information on your meetings, including, you know, not only what device you use, how long you’re there, how active you were in the meeting, and all sorts of other things uh in the thing, in the meeting uh advance. But again, they’re using voice prints and facial remote and collecting all this information. So at the same time, uh starting in about 2020 and really accelerating in mid-21, China launched the fastest acceleration in technology acquisitions and um uh improvements of any place in history. Uh before that, they had very few robots. Now they control 90% of the humanoid robots in the world. That’s more than all the other countries combined. Their AI technology has ramped up quickly where it’s actually on par with ours, whereas before they were lagging behind. Couple that with the fact that we were all shut down during that same time and forced to use platforms just like this that, as we know, collect all types of information on us. Not saying anything happened, but it’s pretty coincidental that um somebody’s listening and uh you make your own decisions. And then you talk about other platforms that people think are safe and uh and how they’re originated. And I can go into some of the ties to um foreign entities and networks and and um people that maybe don’t share our conservative Christian values for the other platforms. Let’s just talk about Signal. Signal received its initial funding in about 2011 from the Obama administration, and then they became a nonprofit and uh and they got uh funding uh from one of their one of their founders got funding from a company uh through an AI company that was uh founded funded by George Soros. Their head now is uh a very staunch uh person that celebrated the uh deplatforming and called Trump a fascist, and now she’s the head of NPR. So again, they are a very trusted uh secure communication platform for a lot of people, but they’re nonprofit, and we know what’s going on with some of the other nonprofits that are very left-leaning. So, again, I’m not saying their technology is bad, I’m not saying the people are bad, but I’m just asking who you would trust with your data and your services. And that’s kind of where we are. We we’re the only ones that are fully quantum resistant, resistant encrypted. Zoom and Teams are not. Uh Zoom can get quantum encrypted uh technology, but you’ve got to cut off most of the functions on their platform, unlike ours, where all it’s functional with quantum resistant encryption. So, so the fact that that Zoom and Teams have very heavy ties to China. Zoom’s founder was actually born in China and didn’t come to the US until he’s 27. Um, he’s got some significant ties with the CCP in in terms of the things that they did uh during some protests and that sort of thing several years back and some association they had. Microsoft actually does research projects with the uh Chinese military. Um, and again, Teams, I’m sorry, uh Signal uses servers that are not their own. They use uh AWS, they use Microsoft servers, they use Google servers, all of whom have uh servers located in in China. Now, I’m not saying that their servers are located in China, but they don’t say they aren’t. So we don’t know who’s listening into those platforms. All of our servers are located in the US, all of our development is by people that we trust who share our conservative Christian values, and we don’t even allow anybody to invest in our platform that doesn’t share our values. So again, it’s a matter of trust, probably, more so than technology.
SPEAKER_01 17:32
Yeah. So you when you say quantum resistant, so quantum computing, if I understand, I don’t understand the difference between that and you know regular computing, but from what I understand, it’s it doesn’t exist yet, right? It’s it’s not um it’s not really expected to come about for the next you know four or five years. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00 17:56
No, it’s not. Um, so so that used to be the case. You’re you’re right about that, Darren. They used to think that it was available in about 2035, and now they’ve made some major advancements. And Google said that quantum resistant, I’m sorry, quantum computers will be widely available in about 2029, and then IBM came out and said 2028. They’re rapidly advancing with their technology. Um, and AI is actually kind of helping that, believe it or not. But if they say they’re going to be available in 2028, they’re probably here now. But what the fact is that bad guys are using a technique called harvest now decrypt later. So they’re scooping up all the information that they’ve got on platforms like this and others where you send um encrypted information and they’re holding it until they can get their hands on a quantum computer. And and and again, let’s just talk about um let’s talk about Zoom taking our voice prints and our facial geometry. They can use AI right now, and they can they can get our voice inflections, our facial uh uh facial expressions and all these other things and kind of generate how we’re formulating a thought, but they can couple that with a quantum computer once they get their hands on it, and now they can not only know what we think, they can know how we formulated those thoughts in a very rapid fashion. So it’s a serious risk to our intellectual property. So that so the bad guys are taking the harvest, the the encrypted data of anything you thought was safe, your bank account, your tax returns, anything you know, your your plans for your company, whatever that you thought was encrypted and safe in a document, and they’re holding that, and and they’ll have their hands on that uh information very quickly and can shred it like a piece of tissue paper. Matter of fact, quantum computers, so so a regular computer processes data in a linear fashion with zeros and ones. Quantum computing uses a thing called superpositioning, and they can take all that data and put it in in a three-dimensional platform almost and process multiple layers of information at the exact same time. So, what would take a normal computer years to decouple quantum computing can do it in minutes or even seconds, depending on the size of the computer? So the threat is coming, it’s coming faster than we think. And again, if they’re telling us 2028, I’m not sure where you’ve come, but I know that the government and other people have probably not told us the truth on certain things. So they might already be here now and they’re probably using them now in certain instances.
SPEAKER_01 20:27
Yeah. So how can you know that the that the software is quantum resistant if there is no quantum computer to test it against?
SPEAKER_00 20:40
So that’s a that’s a great question. And uh, and there’s an organization called the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. It’s a government organization, and they’ve put out several different layers of algorithms that have already been tested, and they’ve got their own quantum computing models already in in in research labs and in governments and big organizations. Um, and so so they’ve come out with a series of algorithms that are what we call NIST approved algorithms, and we’re using those algorithms right now to to uh to test against. So, so we use the best standards that the industry has available through the government. Matter of fact, uh President Trump issued two executive orders requiring all government agencies to use these same protocols to protect their data by 2030. So we’re actually ahead of that in terms of the of the communications platform. So if a so if an organization wanted to get ahead of the requirements that you’re gonna have to have to communicate with the government in 2030, we’ve solved the big piece of that for you because we’ve already got the communications platform figured out.
SPEAKER_01 21:47
Gotcha. And so so this is a much greater threat than the cyber attacks that people are. I mean, people are already having their data stolen and and their their
SPEAKER_00 22:00
passwords broken and their their firewalls broken through because um but but we haven’t even faced quantum computing so are are we basically talking about like ai generated code breaking is that is that what quantum computing is basically well quantum computing will make any search that ai you know any prompt that you put in ai just that much faster okay quantum computing can do so many other things though again take take your take your um tax returns or your investment documents that you’re sending back and forth to your financial advisor or your CPA all those okay let’s talk about medical i’m very free with that HIPAA HIPAA requires that you encrypt any data that has what they call protected health information and so if you use that protected health information uh and you and and it’s and it’s intercepted by somebody and they get access to that the medical office has to pay something like $10,000 per record that’s compromised. It’s a huge fine um so they’re using currently accepted protocols for encryption of that kind of data. It’s safe with current computing quantum computing can shred through that like switch like like like just a piece of tissue paper. So all that type of stuff is is at risk. And again AI can say okay who’s the person that is uh I don’t know let’s let’s let’s make up a thing let’s say somebody’s an administration official in whatever administration you want or a government official in whatever government you want and they can use an AI prompt to search any government official who has a certain disease or mental condition or anything in their medical records that may disqualify them for that position or or cast doubt on their ability to do their job. You see what I’m trying to say all these types of things can happen. But but again they can also go back in in your records and and and just like they did with trying to get Trump’s tax returns a few years ago to try to prove he did something bad which nothing came of that they can do that sort of thing too and cast doubt or dispersion on a person who doesn’t share their views or their values.
SPEAKER_01 24:10
And again we know it most happens on the uh the uh non-conservative side of the aisle more so than it does on the conservative Christian side of the aisle yeah well proverbs 2712 says the prudent see danger and take refuge but the simple keep going and pay the penalty and so certainly uh quantities is a program that we want to consider using for our businesses um john what other guidance would you give to the Christian small business owner to make sure that we are uh that we are being prudent uh rather than just being simple and keeping on going and paying the penalty like the proverb warns us against what what can we do uh to assess our risk and put the things in place now uh to to make sure that we’re protecting what God has entrusted to us?
SPEAKER_00 25:07
Well the main thing you can do is just be careful of what you communicate over platforms like we’re using right now on Zoom because they’re collecting data on you and and and be very careful about what you download on your computer and be very careful about the things you you say in certain environments. And again if you’re gonna have a conversation that might be sensitive uh or confidential or or or even could compromise members of your family then you want to make sure you’re you’re using a secure communication platform. Again I’m I’m biased I think they might want to use Quanta for that that’s a simple download and they can use it across any device they’ve got on any operating system. And um and and just a simple thing that you you may not have considered but you know billions of dollars a year are stolen from elderly people who get a phone call from somebody and says hey I need your bank account information or your social security card or your Medicare card and they steal billions of dollars a year from those people. So you could may have it may have an elderly parent who’s living alone um and who may be very trusting and maybe a little bit um in in slightly cognitive decline um say hey mom you know why don’t we get a a secure application like Quanta and we’ll we’ll create a group and if you don’t get a question regarding finances through that channel then don’t answer it. You know that’s one thing. If you’re sharing photos of your children by simple chat or social media you might want to be aware that there’s a uh uh applications now called nudify apps where they can intercept those photographs and turn them into pornographic images uh and do very terrible things to your kids so so those types of things you might want to share through a uh secure communication platform like Qanta if you’re if you’re talking about a um significant business plan or even if you’re communicating with a ministry overseas, you know, who’s in a country that’s that that you know Christians are lives are in danger. You might want to use a secure communication platform like what we have for those types of things. So again all those again you can use the other platforms I’m not saying they’re bad. I’m just saying you know be careful because you don’t know the intentions of the people that are running those platforms. We already know that they’ve got significant left leaning tendencies we know that they’ve said bad things about our our our conservative governments and we also know I mean COVID’s a whole nother thing we didn’t even get into we all know the lies that um that the uh uh Dr. Fauci even exposed in his diary and in his text messages he sent lately lately. So again I’m not sure what they’re gonna do with the information they’ve got but I know that we’re not gonna do anything bad with it.
SPEAKER_01 27:51
Yes. Well John it’s um I really appreciate you taking the time to to share with us your wisdom today and help us to be more vigilant about our especially our cybersecurity practices and um and I really like especially what you pointed out about taking care of the elderly uh because it it is it is really sad what happens to elderly who I mean the the this technology is all so new uh it’s it’s new to all of us in a lot of ways but you know especially to uh people like my mom technology is not something that uh it really comes naturally and and so you know when they get these these scam offers and I mean I can I can’t tell you how many scam offers she’s asked me about that um that sh seem to be kind of legit um and and was able to to talk her down from not responding to that um but to have a a software program like Quantasure could give us some added peace of mind there um but it’s it’s important work that you’re doing and thank you for doing it with um um with with a kingdom mission in mind uh yeah thank you really appreciate one other thing too you know uh everybody is used to convenience in our society you know quicker better faster what’s easiest I’m not saying you have to stop using the platforms that are out there that everybody’s already used to using but when you want to be sure that what you’re saying and sending is in a secure environment this is a good alternative um and and and again it’s easy to use it’s a simple download so it’s a matter of you know just just just you’ll probably find yourself migrating using it more and more for your conversations as you get into it.
SPEAKER_00 29:44
But initially it’s you know it’s not like you’ve got to stop using something else and learn something totally new and and and do all that sort of thing. You know it’s a subscriber only so you can only communicate with people who have a subscription but that keeps the wall closed uh and the gate closed so nobody can get in um uh and and do bad things but it’s not a scary thing it’s just a different thing it’s a new thing that’s uh that that I think you’ll find is is equally as easy to use as the others once you figure out some of the nuances um but uh it’s it’s not a scary thing and and again again like you said a wise man sees danger and hides himself and that’s very important uh and and and again we’ve just become too comfortable and too complacent and we’ve we’ve freely given all this information to these people that can use it if nothing else to monetize us you know but what else are they doing with that information we already know that I don’t think it’s coincidental that we got forced to lock down everything and then now all of a sudden we’re using these video platforms and then China has almost has surpassed us in technology that heretofore they were way behind. You know yeah again who knows yes well quantasure.com is the website uh anything else you want to say about how people can connect john yeah just go to uh quantasure q a n t a s ure.com and just take a look at it and there’s uh there’s interviews we’ve done with other folks you can see there and uh there’s a comparison chart that gives the technical details about our platform versus the others and I encourage you to take a look at all that stuff and and just see and and just try it out we’ll we’ll be happy to help anyone can all right John this has been great thank you so much thank you thanks for listening to this episode of the Christian business leader podcast be sure to subscribe leave a review and tune in for the next episode as we continue exploring God’s will and ways for business.
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