Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote working models, the number and the likelihood of success of human-centric cyberattacks has increased significantly over the past year. This is also illustrated in the “Human Risk Review 2021” published by SoSafe, which can be requested free of charge via the company’s website. The results of the report were presented to the general public at the 17^th Congress of the Federal Office for Information Security, after the German chancellor’s opening speech.

Cyber Security Awareness is growing in all sectors

SoSafe was quick to recognize that employees play a crucial role in the context of IT security. With over 500 customers, SoSafe’s solution is already one of the most popular cyber security awareness platforms in central Europe. In addition to large multinational companies such as Merck, Aldi or cyber security company Avira, its customers also include numerous public sector organizations. In the case of critical infrastructure organizations (CRITIS), cyber security incidents can not only have a major financial impact, but in the worst case, can also cost human lives. As one of the few GDPR compliant providers, SoSafe has been able to win over many public organizations. Its customers include numerous utilities such as Swedish energy provider Vattenfall. Additionally, more than ten per cent of all German municipalities already rely on SoSafe.

SoSafe triples the number of employees in the pandemic year 2020

To adequately address the increased relevance of cyber security and the subsequent demand for awareness solutions, SoSafe recruited several new team members last year – also during the lockdown. The Managing Director of SoSafe, Dr. Niklas Hellemann, reports: “We tripled the number of our employees in 2020, which makes us very proud. With the new colleagues, we can now actively expand our awareness platform and offer it to international clients.”

The awareness solution enables organizations to train employees in handling cyber threats in an engaging and gamified way. The SoSafe platform runs with a high degree of automation with very low implementation effort necessary. Managed service options reduce the necessary effort for administrators to almost zero – making it a true fire-and-forget “human firewall”. In addition, the platform is completely compliant with the European general data protection regulation (GDPR), as SoSafe entirely resides within the EU and user data is processed and stored exclusively on European servers.

International expansion and new products as further growth drivers

The awareness concept, which is based on behavioral science and learning psychology, is also attracting great interest internationally. Further geographical expansion is planned for 2021, both within the European Union and beyond. Many multinational companies are already using SoSafe to train their employees with the same solution around the globe. The award-winning awareness platform is already available in 23 languages, reaching more than one million users in 30 countries. In the course of the expansion, SoSafe has also broadened its product portfolio. Starting this year, the awareness platform also includes e-learning modules dealing explicitly and comprehensively with the topic of data protection. This enables organizations to minimize human risk in this area in an effective and sustainable way. GDPR compliance can be accomplished in about 20 minutes with four core modules.