As the data breach reaches an all-time high, the human aspect of cybersecurity has never been more important. People are universally recognised as a critical part of the cyber resilience challenge and account for 90 per cent of breaches.
Yet most security teams still can’t easily assess the impact their security controls have on user behaviour or cyber risk. And this is where CybSafe comes into play
Based out of London, CybSafe is a behavioural science and data analytics company that builds software to help organisations manage human cyber risk.
Raised £5.6 million
Recently, the company secured a £5.6 million in a Series A round led by deep tech investors, IQ Capital, along with participation from Hannover Digital Investments GmbH (HDI Group) and B8 Ventures.
The funding will be used to enhance the go-to-market capability, deepen technology and research capability, and further disrupt the industry’s approach to managing human risk.
Help manage human cyber risk
Founded by Oz Alashe, and Sean Lumley in 2017, CybSafe uses audit data from multiple systems (such as Gsuite & Azure) to help manage human cyber risk. It delivers instant, personalised support for users and enables security teams to reduce risk in changing environments.
As per the company’s claims, this approach is more effective than the traditional tick-box approach to security awareness normally reliant on eLearning, phishing, and videos. Efficacy rates of over 90% for some behaviours prove it.
350 organisations in 15 countries
At present, CybSafe is available in 9 languages and used by over 350 organisations in 15 countries. It has clients including Credit Suisse, Air Canada, HSBC, and NHS Trusts.
Oz Alashe MBE, former UK Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel, and the CEO and founder of CybSafe: “We believe in people. And we passionately believe in the impact data and behavioural science can have on human cyber risk management. Our platform is for organisations who ultimately want to do more than rely just on e-learning and phishing simulations. It’s a platform that can grow with them through to when they are ready to measure security behaviour change.
“The world has changed and so CybSafe is designed to educate, support, and assist users. It improves security culture in a way that can be measured and gives unparalleled insights in a way that allows our customers to pre-empt security problems. We’re making it easy to manage human cyber risk. And we’re delighted to have incredible investors that support our vision for a safer and better digital world for all people.”
Caroline Banseraj, Chief Operations Officer, Global CISO Office at Credit Suisse: “We continue to benefit from CybSafe’s reporting insight and innovative approach to managing people risk. Their technology has transformed the way we support our people, meet our regulatory obligations and reduce people-related risk. CybSafe’s clear focus on human cyber risk reduction rather than just “awareness” makes them a natural partner for us, and many other financial institutions like us”.
Kerry Baldwin, Managing Partner at IQ Capital: “CybSafe’s data modelling of employee security behaviours and habits is game-changing. They are transforming the security industry by pioneering the use of data to address the human aspect of cybersecurity. It’s an area that has been under-served to date. Leveraging proprietary and third-party data – and robust behavioural psychology – their risk-models will enable security teams to predict areas of user-related vulnerability, and the platform will deliver personalised interventions. They are at the forefront in this data space and have built one of the UK’s highest-potential cybersecurity companies. We’re excited to lead the funding round and be part of this growing movement of change-makers focused on human cyber risk.”