Lakeland cyber company combines psychology and humor to fight threats - Tampa Bay Inno
2021-10-05 13:20:00 - Lauren Coffey
What started out at a conference led by Sir Richard Branson has turned into a Lakeland cybersecurity company looking to change the industry.
A few years back, serial entrepreneur Adam Anderson attended a conference run by the Virgin Group founder that had a handful of participants talk business for a week.
“Leaving that island showed me it is possible for an organization to really change the entire world if you pick your lane to be intentional,” Anderson said. “That inspired me to think these thoughts on, ‘What is a global impact?’ And I thought, ‘If I was going to do this what would it look like?’ Well, let’s do psychology security. Let’s do it where it entertains.”
Adam Anderson, co-founder and chairman of the board at Hook Security. Hook Security Anderson brought his cyber idea to Zachary Eikenberry , who helped form Hook Security in 2019. The company, like many cyber companies, brings training through videos but does so with a focus on the psychology behind the learning.
“Were working to solve the one size fits all issue which is that everyone is trained on the same day, in the same way, regardless of their role or personality,” Eikenberry, the company’s CEO, said. “Some people roll their eyes and say, ‘This doesn’t apply to me.’ There are a number of reasons the way we do cybersecurity and compliance training is taxing and detrimental and we’re trying to solve those issues.”
The company uses two psychologists to help with its programming, which brings “edutainment,” or entertainment and education, to the users. The “Saturday Night Live”-type videos teach users ways to recognize threats and learn how their behavior contributes to the overall safety of the company.
“There’s a lot of research out there about cartoons and animation they’re abstract and it engages the frontal cortex,” Eikenberry said. “We’re trying to capture the primitive brain. Were trying to disarm the brain, show what’s going on here, and by doing it every month you get the same, ‘Huh, that’s what it is’ pattern recognition.”
The company is nestled in Catapult Lakeland, the city’s startup accelerator. It previously was a Tampa Bay Wave company. The company closed its seed round for $1.5 million in June and is eyeing a Series A between $3 to $4 million. It’s on its way in August, the company participated in the national “Congressional Startup Day.” While Hook didn’t win, it raised $50,000 from interested investors, which was more than the pitch’s grand prize.
The company currently has nine employees with the expectation to have roughly 14 by the end of the year.
While the company continues to innovate, Anderson is also eyeing the space industry as Hook’s next challenge to tackle.
“The way you communicate through satellite is through the internet, which means there is an IP address that can be hacked,” he said. “All this is leading to get the resources we need to have society run without deterring earth, and we believe those resources are located in space.”