“We want every employee to take a moment to reflect on their cyber security behaviour.”
“Since my retirement from BNP Paribas Fortis, where I worked for about 35 years in Marketing, Communication, Sales and Cybersecurity, I have been active at Psybersafe,” explains Populaire about his recent career shift. “I was already familiar with its services because we frequently used them at BNP Paribas Fortis to train our employees.”
Driving behavioural change
Psybersafe is a UK-based company that offers online awareness exercises on cyber security. “We carry out monthly, low-threshold, tailored online exercises focusing on human behaviour.” Rather than traditional e-learning, Psybersafe uses an interactive chat format where participants are presented with a series of choices, and the pathway is determined by their responses. “Most importantly, we want every employee to take a moment to reflect on their cyber security behaviour,” he continues.
“Given my long-standing involvement with the Coalition from its inception, it was a logical choice to involve Psybersafe as well. Now, after about a year of membership via the Belgian branch of Psybersafe, I can confidently say that the expected added value has become a reality,” he says. “It helps us gain additional brand recognition.”
However, Populaire emphasises that initiatives like Psybersafe face significant hurdles in the Belgian SME landscape. “It is very challenging to find a receptive audience in this target group, which is so vital to our economic fabric. Unfortunately, it still often only happens when the company or sector in question has recently experienced an incident.”
He highlights that the challenge is not about cost. “The Belgian government clearly supports our mission: Psybersafe has been chosen as one of the laureates of the Cyber4SME project by the Federal Public Service Economy and thanks to a subsidy from Europe, SMEs with up to 50 employees can use our services for free until end May 2026.”
Lowering barriers
For Populaire, the situation underscores the need to further invest in awareness. “We must continue to search for touchpoints that create traction,” he says. “This is also the goal of the Awareness Focus Group, of which I was co-chair for many years. To some extent, that group faces the same challenge. We see most of the participation coming from larger companies.”
This is precisely why the Coalition should reconsider the conditions tied to membership, he says. “An annual membership fee of €2,500 is a good investment for a big SME. For a smaller player, it’s a completely different story. I believe we should explore more accessible options,” he concludes.
