EBS Has Started Collaboration With Estonian Cyber Security Company

Published On: June 30, 2017Categories: News

This week, while the world was shaken by a ransomware attack, Estonian Business School has started collaboration with Estonian cyber security companies BHC Laboratory and CybExer Technologies in order to jointly increase future business executives’ capability to avoid increasingly more violent global cyber threats.

According to Toomas Danneberg, the vice rector for international collaboration at EBS, three levels of cooperation with the above Estonian companies have been planned. First, BHC Laboratory and CybExer Technologies will be supporting EBS’s recently devised master program Digital Society, which is to start in the autumn; it will be training future leaders who will be able to successfully manage organizations and businesses in the rapidly digitalizing world.

“The role of the university implies staying up to date and treading a step ahead of what is happening in business. Today, heads of companies and organizations also need knowledge and practical experience in the sphere of technologies as well as their impact on commercial operation in addition to thorough business and management expertise,” Danneberg said. “Cyber security has long been a complicated, remote and overly technical area for businesses, which is why they feel vulnerable now. For modern companies, cyber security in business is one of strategical issues which cannot be avoided in the digitalizing world. It is our obligation to provide business leaders with the necessary knowledge and experience, and we are glad to be able to do it together with internationally acclaimed partners from Estonia.”

Second, EBS will be spearheading the introduction and mediate the cyber hygiene e-learning platform created by CybExer Technologies to the international network of business education universities. In the world’s only testing environment, users are to face real-life situations and genuine cases to improve their personal cyber hygiene through simple and entertaining tests. In May, the test was implemented by the Information System Authority, which had thousands of government officials take it to evaluate and improve their digital skills.

“Given the date when our collaboration started, EBS’s initiative and social responsibility can hardly be overestimated. We signed the agreement when the largest ever ransomware attack had paralyzed hundreds of governmental offices and companies, including airports and banks all over the world as well as a chain of building material stores here in Estonia,” said Janek Gridin, member of the board of CybExer Technologies. “The fact that there is a flu season in the digital world is no news any more. Now it is high time we quickly learned to wash our hands regularly, so to say.”

Third, the partners will jointly start working on the creation of a cyber security exercise for businesses so that EBS’s international partners as well as other companies and corporations could test their capabilities in a real-life cyber attack situation. The development will be based on the cyber wars e-learning platform by BHC Laboratory, which is meant for states, security institutions and similar organizations and has already earned international acclaim.

“We need to get used to the fact that international cyber conflicts will inevitably affect enterprises and global corporations, which is why we want to adapt the learning platform meant for governments to the needs of businesses in collaboration with EBS,” said Andrus Kivisaar, member of the board of BHC Laboratory.

MBA in Digital Society, a new business administration specialization to start at EBS in autumn, is the one that caters best for the needs of modern society, educating future leaders who will be able to successfully manage organizations and businesses in the rapidly digitalizing world. The program combines the know-how of unique digital society of Estonia with EBS’s internationally recognized quality and experience, which will allow spearheading development and creating value in the new reality.

Additional information:
Janek Gridin
CybExer Technologies
Member of the board
+372 5059478

Iris Raudsik
Estonian Business School
PR specialist
E-mail: iris.raudsik@ebs.ee
Tel.: 5274123