NOMINATION HIGHLIGHTS

Covered Security is a new, innovative solution to the intractable problem of users sacrificing security for convenience and creating risk for them, their employer, and their vendors – by simplifying security habits and realigning incentives to make improving security simple, fast, and personally rewarding.

For the company it’s a Behavior Analytics and Management Platform, providing (anonymous) analytics and promotions to:
• benchmark user-behavior risk
• identify and target weak behavior for improvement, while ensuring users are in full control of their personally-identifiable info
• drive personalized incentives and promotions to drive behavior change
• measure behavior change.

Covered researched the online behavior and security incident experience of thousands of typical end users and security professionals. The data showed that users suffer online identity compromise at a rate 124.7% higher than experts, due to the choices that they make online.

Covered then researched online behavior across 186 security actions, and using machine learning identified 18 specific behaviors that separated experts from non-experts – and make them more secure at home and at work. By adopting these habits, users reduce the risk of identity compromise by account takeover, credential stuffing, password cracking, social engineering, and phishing.

Users begin by taking a quiz about their online behavior, receiving a risk score and personalized recommendations for improvement. Over time Covered supplements self-reported behavior with behavior observed via its Personal Assistant (a web app and browser extension).

The security team can benchmark the company’s risk relative to other companies, and benchmark within the organization to identify groups with stronger or weaker behavior – all while protecting the privacy of the individuals, who control their personally-identifiable information. Security teams can drill down to see the specific behavior risk, the progress of their promotions and incentives, and measure behavior change.