Hardly any other turn of the year has been so eagerly awaited as this one. Full of hope and confidence, the whole world looks towards the new year with the desire that this year will be better than the last. Finally, normality again. Finally, traveling again. Finally meeting colleagues, friends and family again. Finally, lightheartedness and serenity again. We at Perseus also hope that these wishes will come true in the coming weeks and months. We are looking forward to 2021 – we have a lot planned!
Appropriately at the turn of the year, we have also reviewed 2020. Sure, it was a challenging year for Perseus as well. Nevertheless, there were many positive and beautiful moments that we do not want to miss despite Corona, Lockdown and contact restrictions.
Here is our review of 2020.
February: Perseus becomes part of the HDI Group
At the beginning of the year, the first milestone was already set. Perseus leaves the Finleap ecosystem and was acquired by HDI Group on February 1, 2020. The partnership, which already started in 2019, could thus be further consolidated. For HDI Group, this means that it can now offer cyber insurance and cybersecurity services from a single source.
Perseus will continue to operate as an independent brand after the acquisition and will remain as a cybersecurity provider for existing customers or third-party companies.
March: Home office becomes the norm
Since mid-March, it’s been home office for all employees! Because for Perseus, too, the safety of its employees is a top priority. The changeover to working from home was quick and unbureaucratic. Every day there was a short catch-up call with the entire team. This made it possible to work efficiently despite the contact ban and the restriction on leaving. To maintain a sense of community, themed meetings were held, e.g. “Everyone in Pink” or “Pirate Day”. There was something for everyone.
June: Expansion of emergency management with CYRISO
In June, Perseus purchased CYRISO, a service provider specializing in cyber damage. Cyber damage recovery is part of Perseus’ employee-centric approach. With the acquisition, Perseus expanded its existing emergency response product and can offer its customers an improved service, as cyber damage prevention and comprehensive damage management can now be delivered from a single source.
August: Number of employees doubled – A larger office is needed.
Another highlight in 2020 was the constantly expanding team structure. Almost no week went by without seeing a new face in the office hallways or during online calls. On-boarding at Corona times posed challenges for the Perseus team, but the lack of face-to-face interaction was well compensated by shared digital Aperitivo Fridays. In the last eight months alone, the Perseus family has more than doubled from 30 to over 60 employees.
With the team growth also came a new office. Perseus is still located in the fintech hub H:32 in the heart of Berlin, not far from the Berlin Zoo. But the elevator now stops on the seventh floor instead of the fourth. The larger office and conference rooms enable better collaboration and allow employees for whom home office is not an option to work safely and Corona-compliant during these times.
October: More content, more phishing simulations
Perseus’ vision is to enable enterprises to achieve lasting IT security and data protection. In addition, Perseus helps companies integrate a sustainable cybersecurity culture. Because of its employee-centric approach, it puts people first. In terms of cyberattacks, this remains the number one gateway. To mitigate the risk, Perseus is optimizing the combination of video-based, hands-on online training and the fully-automated, real-world phishing simulations. Employees are now more intensively sensitized to phishing and trained to recognize potential attack patterns from hackers. This will help increase security for Perseus users.
We have similarly ambitious goals at Perseus for 2021. For example, we want to adapt our product and service offering even more to the wishes and requirements of our customers. We want to further expand our partner network and help even more companies build a holistic cybersecurity culture and integrate it into their organization.