SecurePractice4EU - Norway
In the EU, more than 10 terabytes of data are stolen monthly in cyberattacks. The compound effect of these data breaches is that phishing and email scams become more effective, and ransomware attacks more frequent and much more extortionate. Because humans are a highly vulnerable part of the security landscape, they often get all the blame – when in reality, people represent our biggest potential for improving cyber resilience.
Why is this initiative necessary?
“How would you react if you woke up to a cyberattack in the company where you work?” asks Erlend Andreas Gjære, who is co-founder and CEO of Secure Practice. “The problem is that most people don’t know what to do because they have not received proper training,” he adds. Secure Practice provides data-driven tools to cultivate security among colleagues in a workplace. Supported by scalable cloud services, the company is putting special focus on the role of employees in cybersecurity.
Now, they have launched an EU wide campaign for interactive preparedness exercises in the cybersecurity domain, where people who are responsible for IT, security and preparedness in all kinds of organizations come together to train, exchange perspectives and learn from each other. Get to know the initiative
Secure Practice’s approach is so innovative that it recently received EUR 2.5 million in funding from the EU’s Digital Europe Programme, which promotes the twin objectives of a green transition and digital transformation while strengthening Europe’s resilience and digital sovereignty.
As a first step, Secure Practice is offering free interactive trainings to more than a thousand Norwegian businesses, creating self-engagement and self-efficacy in cybersecurity. The Norwegian training is an initiative supported by several large organisations, including Digital Norway (coordinator of a European Digital Innovation Hub), DNB (Norway’s largest bank), DNV (certification, business assurance and R&D), NHO (Norway’s largest employer organisation) and Telenor (Norway’s largest telecom operator).
After completion of the Norwegian pilot initiative in 2024, the company’s cyber preparedness exercise sessions will be offered in other European countries, and Secure Practice is now searching for local partners in EU countries to expand its initiative.
Who are the beneficiaries?
People who are responsible for IT, security and preparedness at SMEs, large companies and public organizations are the beneficiaries of this initiative, who will bring their knowledge back from free trainings to their own companies, where we want them to become trainers of their own, for their own colleagues. Secure Practice is the beneficiary of project funds from DIGITAL, to take the risk of bringing this initiative out to the market, together with local partners in each target country.
With convincing stories and KPIs from the first stage in Norway, combined with strong and visual video communications, the message to the target group should be attractive to partners in any country. With a dedicated focus on EU, however, SecurePractice4EU will through DIGITAL ensure EU policy objectives are reached on protecting EU companies, citizens, creating jobs, digital skills and EU cybersecurity industry.
