Benify Makes Awareness Training a Top Priority With Mimecast

Ensuring that all email users are educated and kept up to date on the latest cyber hygiene practices is a must for any cybersecurity strategy. And while that’s especially true for Benify, an HR technology company, it’s no easy task. “We have offices spread out across seven European countries, the United Kingdom and the United States,” says Oscar Appelqvist, Information Security Specialist at Benify. “It’s important to have training content that’s engaging, and that everyone can connect to.” Luckily, Mimecast Awareness Training provided just the program Appelqvist and his team were searching for.

Customer Vision 

Prior to partnering with Mimecast, Benify had no formal training products in place. “Internally, we developed a survey with 20-30 questions that every employee had to fill out once a year,” Appelqvist says. “While it was mandatory, everyone sort of just did it and forgot about it and we had no real follow up."

“While we were producing our own training content in the past, we had no way of tracking progress –what people actually remembered or how they cared about information security. Mimecast Awareness Training provided all the statistics we needed which was a very useful tool to have at our disposal.”

Oscar Appelqvist, Information Security Specialist at Benify

"Our team also created videos with animations, and while fun, they just weren’t getting the job done.”

“With human error responsible for 70-75% of our cybersecurity incidents, educating people in what they’re doing, or shouldn’t be doing, is vital.” says Appelqvist. “Information security and cyberthreats are a never-ending story. We needed something more.”

Customer Strategy 

For Appelqvist and his team, the bottom line was this: implement a cybersecurity training program that would not only educate email users and keep them entertained and engaged, but also provide the IT team with statistics to track progress. The search for the right solution didn’t come without challenges.

“With offices spread out across the world and employees speaking several different languages, it was important that we find a solution that everyone could understand and relate to,” Appelqvist says. “Mimecast Awareness Training was particularly appealing because of the multilanguage support and subtitles on all videos.”

“And while we were producing our own training content in the past, we had no way of tracking progress – what people actually remembered or how they cared about information security. Mimecast Awareness Training provided all the statistics we needed which was a very useful tool to have at our disposal.”

Customer Outcome 

Since deploying Mimecast Awareness Training, Appelqvist and his team have noticed more engaged email users across the board. “Employees are not only watching and enjoying the Mimecast Awareness Training videos, but they have become proactive and are actually reaching out to ask questions if they think they may have a potential incident at hand, or even basic questions about what is ok to install on their computer,” says Appelqvist.

And he believes that Mimecast’s use of comedy and a sitcom-style approach to Awareness Training is having a major impact. “People are familiar with Mimecast’s characters now, they know who will goof up or who will try to make things better,” says Appelqvist. “Having that familiarity is a huge part of it. It’s a comfort thing and it works.”

Overall, Appelqvist and his team are sure that Mimecast Awareness Training has better positioned Benify employees against future cyber threats. “I think we most definitely are better positioned thanks to Mimecast Awareness Training. In a world where we have some people working in the office, others at home or traveling, you really start to see people think twice – or thrice – about what they should do when it comes to suspicious emails, clicking on links, and just their overall approach to cybersecurity.”

“In a world where we have some people working in the office, others at home or traveling, you really start to see people think twice – or thrice– about what they should do when it comes to suspicious emails, clicking on links, and just their overall approach to cybersecurity.”

Oscar Appelqvist, Information Security Specialist at Benify