KnowBe4 Adds Security Culture Measurement with CLTRe Buy

KnowBe4 has acquired CLTRe, a Norwegian company focused on helping organizations assess, build, maintain and measure a strong security posture.

CLTRe will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of KnowBe4, and service customers globally. CLTRe’s Toolkit and Security Culture Framework will be available to all KnowBe4 customers later this year.

Financial details of the transaction weren’t disclosed. KnowBe4 provides security awareness training and simulated phishing.

Perry Carpenter, KnowBe4’s chief evangelist and strategy officer, tells us by becoming a KnowBe4 company, CLTRe will be building out a number of sales and partnership activities and opportunities.

KnowBe4’s Perry Carpenter

“At KnowBe4, this is a fantastic opportunity to take advantage of CLTRe’s location and establish a new regional office in Oslo,” he said. “As such, we’ll be looking to expand our reach in that region.”

CLTRe has spent years creating and refining its process for measuring security culture, Carpenter said.

“This isn’t something that competitors can simply replicate overnight,” he said. “CLTRe‘s sociological and mathematical rigor is a ‘secret sauce’ that is already recognized as leading the industry. Incorporating CLTRe’s measurement capabilities and [its] Security Culture Framework makes KnowBe4 is the undisputed leader when it comes to awareness content, simulated social engineering, behavior change methodologies and security culture measurement. And we wrap that up into the easiest to deploy and most cost-effective platform on the market.”

CLTRe measures the seven dimensions of security culture: behavior, responsibilities, cognition, norms, compliance, communication and attitudes.

CLTRe’s Toolkit and the Security Culture Framework work in tandem to help organizations gather evidence about their current security culture and how it changes over time. KnowBe4 users will gain access to a research-driven measurement platform to show how their security culture program matures over time. And CLTRe clients will be introduced to KnowBe4’s platform, designed to help educate users and change their behaviors.

“KnowBe4 is a leader in innovation and has a wonderful track record for growing quickly but with a very specific focus on improving security at the human level,” said Kai Roer, CLTRe’s CEO. “This is a natural fit for our evidence-based analytics and measurement tools, as KnowBe4 customers will now be able to measure their security cultures, benchmark against their industry sectors, and pinpoint exactly what kind of security culture they have. With KnowBe4 and CLTRe, organizations can gain true insight into their security culture, improve their security with pinpoint accuracy, report their progress to their board of directors, and educate their users to make smarter security decisions.”