It’s a fundamental law of cybersecurity that as companies grow, they become a bigger target for scammers. It’s no surprise, then, that leading e-bike startup Cowboy gets so much unwanted attention. As Cowboy Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder Tanguy Goretti says, “Every time we raise funds, we get attacked.”
So, how is Cowboy meeting these challenges? For Tanguy and his team, it’s all about building a culture of everyday cybersecurity awareness.
The critical importance of cybersecurity awareness
There’s a lot to think about when growing a company: developing an amazing product, securing funding, and finding the right talent. Unfortunately, there’s one other thing founders don’t think about as often as they should: cybersecurity.
“Since the beginning of the Cowboy adventure, we’ve been the victim of phishing attacks,” says Tanguy. “We were training our employees in all aspects of cybersecurity, but it was just a one-off training, and didn’t necessarily raise our level of shared awareness.”
Then, things got serious. “We faced another type of attack, which was invoice fraud. That’s when we actually lost money. This was the trigger to find a better solution.”
For Tanguy, this successful attack highlighted the need to train every member of the Cowboy team to not only detect cybersecurity threats, but to respond to these threats safely.
Learn more: ‘Exceptional, in a Bad Way’ – How Groupe Le Monde Fixed a 66% Phishing Vulnerability
Creating a culture of vigilance against threats
Cyber threats like phishing and invoice fraud can target any member of a company, anywhere, at any time. That’s why everyone needs to be on guard – and why a training platform like Riot can make such a big impact for a fast-growing company like Cowboy.
“Our aim with Riot is to create a climate of vigilance amongst our teams to make sure we can react correctly if we’re attacked,” says Tanguy. “We tried it out and were quickly won over. It saved us the equivalent of half a full-time role.”
“The Riot platform is super simple and super interactive, and it’s fully integrated into the company’s working tools. That’s why our training completion rate is over 85%.”
Training is one thing, but as Tanguy says, it’s even better to put learning to the test. “The attack simulation part complements the training courses, helping us to create a climate in which people are suspicious of potential phishing attacks – and rightly so.”
So, how is Cowboy making progress in the race to defeat cyber attacks?
Pursuing zero vulnerability with Riot
For Tanguy and the Cowboy team, Riot’s awareness training and simulations are making a huge impact in growing their cybersecurity culture and managing their vulnerability.
“The idea is to carry out phishing simulations every month and make cybersecurity training an ongoing thing,” he says. “Today, we’re at less than 4% vulnerability, and things are getting better all the time. We’re not at zero yet, but we’re getting close.”
Even better, Cowboy is doing this all autonomously. “We don’t have to pay an outside firm to do a penetration test or an audit. We can do this automatically, on our own.”
Alongside Cowboy, Riot is helping 1,000+ companies to stay safe in the face of phishing attacks, invoice fraud, and other threats. We do this with our cybersecurity coach Albert, who delivers immersive training in quick, impactful sessions people actually enjoy.
Keen to learn more about how Riot can help your team stay safe in the face of today’s biggest cyber threats? Talk to one of our experts today.