Prepping analysts for the cyber wars
Major data breaches that were rampant in 2011 not only jeopardized people’s information, but also the company's pockets. CyberSponse's mission was to provide a solution that was able to keep companies ahead of bad actors and help prepare them for the ongoing cyber threats.
Sony's data breach resulted in financial losses estimated at over $170 million, highlighting the severe impact of cyber threats on corporate finances. [right img source - https://cybernews.com/security/billions-passwords-credentials-leaked-mother-of-all-breaches/]
Data breaches involve unauthorized access to sensitive company information, typically through hacking, phishing, or exploiting system vulnerabilities. In the past, these incidents were often overlooked due to a lack of awareness and understanding of the potential consequences. Companies underestimated the risks, leading to significant financial losses, legal issues, and damage to their reputation.
CyberSponse designed and developed SOAR (Security Orchestration Automated Response), an automated incident response platform that equipped the user with the right tools and contextual data to diagnose incoming cyber security threats faster.
Being a small startup, I held many roles during the span of my employment. Eventually, I became the Product Designer that lead both the UI / UX for the platform as well as managing a small team that helped produced wireframes/prototypes/designs for the platform and creating assets for the sales and marketing team.
Companies utilizing CyberSponse’s platform now have a better control of their cyber security domain. Analysts are able to solve incidents in less time and also catch them from breaking out into bigger problems through the platform. As a result, major breaches became less frequent, and companies are saving money as well as saving face.
CyberSponse has received many rewards and nominations for its innovation in the cybersecurity world. One of the honor was being awarded as the winner of the Top 20 Innovative Cyber Security Solution Providers in 2019.
In addition, CyberSponse was later acquired by Fortinet in late 2019.
Over the course of my employment, I helped the CyberSponse team as a UI / UX designer. In the beginning, the team’s process was very simple and our goal was even simpler: Get Investors. In the early stages of the startup, my main role as a UI Designer was to lay the design and aesthetics so that they closely match the UX Designer’s wireframes.The process we had laid out at first was targeted more towards helping stakeholders.
This process held up pretty well for the company, as it did in fact helped the stakeholders explain to investors what was being built, why it was being built, and how it would help an incident response team. However, over time, the team realized this would easily fall apart in the real world.
Our team went from a stakeholder-centric flow to a more user-centric flow that focused a lot of efforts on getting the experience right. We couldn’t afford extensive user testing and observation, and so we opted for the assumption-based model that allowed us to rapidly prototype interactions with post-it notes, index cards, or other prototyping tools.
The team not only tested these prototypes and interactions with actual users that would use the platform, but we also tested them with non-users to partake in our sessions.
The platform was a hit in many companies. CyberSponse won many deals and contracts over similar competitors and even landed a government contract with the US Army. Not only did our team created a platform that helped analysts reduce the time needed to respond to incidents, but we saved companies from spending tons of money on additional resources and potentially saving them from a costly breach. To further celebrate, the value built into the platform by the whole team helped put the startup on a path that led to acquisition by Fortinet in late 2019.
I've learned a lot during this startup and it became a great foundation for my knowledge as both a UX and UI Designer. In this complex field of cyber security, there's a lot to take into account when deciding what makes a great user experience. Since companies lose money when their services are down from a breach, it's important to think of the necessary information a user needs to get to the finish the line and to not be overly distracted by aesthetics.