MAIRE, engineering at the service of the energy transition
With Cyber Guru, every employee has become a cyber defender
MAIRE S.p.A. heads an engineering group that develops and implements innovative technologies to support the energy transition. It is characterized by significant numbers: a presence in 50 countries, more than 9,000 employees, supported by more than 20,000 people involved in projects spanning the globe. Security has thus long been one of the central focuses of the company, which for years has already been paying special attention to both technological measures and the training of employees and collaborators to curb cyber risk and avoid attacks and data breaches.
In recent years, the Group has embarked on a transformation that sees it increasingly committed to the fronts of innovation and sustainability with the intention of meeting global challenges in the service of the energy transition, thanks in part to a strong investment in technology. In the wake of these changes, the approach to security has also undergone a radical overhaul.
“The classic training concept made of long one-shot modules was no longer satisfactory, did not yield the expected results and, above all, no longer resembled the new face of MAIRE, inspired by a vision of the world and business much more in line with the new times.” Speaking is Andrea Licciardi Senior Cybersecurity Manager of the group with 20 years of experience in cyber security, who tells us about meeting Cyber Guru and how decisive this was in the company’s journey.
“While we had strong technological protection that largely kept us safe from attack,” Licciardi says, “we knew that without proper training, even the best technologies can fail. So we began to look for a more compelling alternative and came across Cyber Guru, a training approach that met the goal we had long had: to be able to turn every employee into an active first line of defense for the company, in the knowledge that no matter how technologically structured we may be, the human factor is still the most vulnerable element.
Reality today presents us with a very intelligent threat that is constantly changing and renewing its challenges faster and faster.
To deal with it, one must develop resilience, constantly train oneself to recognize the risk even from afar and learn how to stop it in time. Above all, it is important for each employee or collaborator to become aware of the relevance of his or her protective role and take responsibility for it.”
New training needs, far removed from the classical conception of security training, dovetailed perfectly with Cyber Guru’s proposal.
“We have been working with Cyber Guru for about a year and a half now, and we can say that to date our perspective on security has undergone a 360-degree metamorphosis and the way we experience cyber risk has radically changed,” Licciardi says.
“The approach is no longer reactive but proactive, with the intention of creating synergy among all employees and all teams and feeling like a team: everyone, regardless of their position, feels invested with a central role in defending the company. This constitutes a high added value because it fortifies team membership and makes us all look in the same direction.”
Making a hostile subject simple
Another distinctive element in the training proposed by Cyber Guru is the simplification of a subject that has always been considered hostile and complex.
“What really struck us about Cyber Guru,” Licciardi explains, “was the innovative and engaging approach that makes certain issues, which have always been considered only the preserve of experts and insiders, understandable to everyone, through engaging training pills lasting only a few minutes and through the tool of the web series, episodes made with professional actors in which they recount the most frequent daily experiences that conceal the attempt of an attack and that any of us can run into. An intriguing appointment, in the manner of a real television series, to learn the culture of security and to spread it among friends and family as well.”
Of great importance is the possibility of constant training, without which, any theoretical notion, after a short time, is forgotten. Gamification, organized by Cyber Guru, also becomes a rendezvous that various teams wait for to test, while having fun, what they have learned. Another way to keep a constant focus on the topic of cyber security.”
Already within a few months of the start of the journey with Cyber Guru, there was a sense of involvement in the company from everyone on the topic of security. “Our employees now talk about Cyber security even in front of the coffee machine,” Licciardi says, “and they bring their awareness and new behaviors into their private lives as well. This is a great achievement in the perspective of an increasingly necessary but still too deficient cyber culture compared to the fast evolution of crime. Even at the reporting level we notice a big step forward in terms of increasing awareness and understanding of risk, which has certainly led us to increase our resilience and defensive strength. All this has a major impact on the trust of our customers and suppliers and initiates a 360-degree virtuous process, which also reaches out to our stakeholders.”
Corporate security shared among all employees
Today, in the age when it is enough to buy on the web, for 60 euros, a tool that perfectly imitates anyone’s voice and where the weapons of hackers, thanks in part to the spread of artificial intelligence and social engineering, are increasingly sharp, ad personam training, designed for each employee and that is always up to date with the latest in crime, is more necessary than ever. And those in companies involved in security know how important it is to strengthen the human factor and make it the first line of defense.
“Those who, like me, are involved in corporate security know how difficult our task is and often leads us not to sleep at night because of the concerns and constant challenges that crime puts in front of us,” Licciardi says. “The time has definitely come when the entire corporate security apparatus, instead of falling on the shoulders of a single figure, can be shared among all employees. Cyber Guru has strongly contributed to this change by turning every corporate presence into a cyber defender. This is a great achievement that, in addition to giving me more peaceful sleep (but this is the least important aspect), provides the Group with a much strengthened security guarantee and brings all staff together in an important common goal: to always keep the doors barred to every attack attempt.”
