CASE STUDIES

“It can happen to me too”. The emotional impact that can be the turning point for learning

Overview

Italy’s leading provider of legal and tax services, operating in all areas of commercial and corporate criminal law. A team of about 800 people, including some 550 lawyers, with a very dense network of relationships and exchanges that take place largely via the web and that travel the world, given that BonelliErede has offices in Milan, Rome, Genoa, London, Brussels, Dubai, Cairo and Addis Ababa.

The challenge

An important and well-structured organisation from the point of view of computer security, which has always curbed attempted attacks with adequate protection systems over the years, with only one weak point: the difficulty in communicating to the large team of professionals the importance of adequate training on cybersecurity and its risks.

The solution

Cyber Guru was undoubtedly the most suitable choice to actively engage professionals with very busy days, thanks to its videos, based on the TV series model and played by professional actors who simulate real risk situations by showing how not to fall into a trap, and also thanks to its Gamification techniques.

BonelliErede speaks about how Cyber Guru’s tools managed to break through the wall of disinterest and helped the whole team reach unexpected levels of digital awareness

BonelliErede, Italy’s leading provider of legal and tax services, is active in all areas of commercial law and corporate criminal law, where it mainly provides assistance to companies. The sectors in which it operates are varied, with a team of about 800 people, including about 550 lawyers, and with relationships and exchanges that cross the globe.

A well-structured organisation from an IT security point of view, but with a problem: convincing people with busy days and major challenges on their mind to devote part of their time to training on a subject that does not directly involve them. Or so they think.

“We insiders have always known that the weak point in safety lies between the computer monitor and the back of the chair, and that is the human factor. But the problem is how to make that understood by those who, in life, deal with other things”. Here to explain how this challenge was overcome is Mauro Baldoni, IT director of BonelliErede.

“So we experimented with different approaches: online teaching, PowerPoint, various types of documents, even short videos produced in-house. Everything failed, we were incapable of capturing the attention of our lawyers in any way”.

TV series for active engagement

“The key was when we realised that by showing an episode of the well-known series Black Mirror, produced by Netflix, in which a typical attack on the CEO took place through the grooming of his teenage son, everyone was glued to the video”, says Mauro Baldoni, “in short, everyone understood that any one of them could have been the victim of that story”.

“During that same period”, Baldoni continues, “we discovered Cyber Guru, together with its partner Tormalina, and their various training programmes. More specifically, their videos, based on the TV series model and starring professional actors simulating real, everyday risk situations and showing the right way not to fall into the trap, were certainly for us.

This new approach, particularly because it is based on a highly engaging narrative, centred on the exposure of real cases of cyberattacks, was greatly appreciated internally and involved the various professional figures and age groups across the board.

What impressed us the most was that there were incidents of phishing attempts that were immediately intercepted, even by older members. Even those in their eighties, which was A result we did not expect”.

To read the full interview and find out more click here