SWITCH Security Awareness Day 2022

Jörn Basel is Professor of Business Psychology at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU). He studied psychology in Konstanz, Toronto and Heidelberg and received his PhD from ESCP Business School Berlin on the topic of heuristic decision processes in management accounting. His research and teaching interests are in the area of applied decision research, with a focus on trust, risk perception, and new technologies. In addition to his activities at the university, he works as a coach and trainer for the consulting firm The Negotiation Studio, Konstanz.

Milena Thalmann is a mediator between the worlds of IT and marketing. Her approach is to create visibility and interest for digital trends through good communication, at eye level with IT. Originally, Milena started her career as a graphic designer and learned in classic advertising what matters for brands and messages. Through her work in IT, however, the scope of her knowledge has since expanded to include many more aspects in communication. Milena has been working closely with security specialists for several years and always relies on their expertise, engaging storytelling and comprehensibility for the recipients when it comes to awareness topics and security stories.

Uta Menges has been a research assistant and PhD student within the research college “SecHuman” at the chair of work, organizational and business psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany since July 2021. Her bachelor’s degree in business psychology was followed by a master’s degree in marriage, family, and life counseling. In her research, she, and her tandem partner Jonas Hielscher, from the field of human-centred security, deal with IT security solutions and risk management in organization.

Prof. Dr Kristin Weber is a professor at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS). Among other things, she researches and teaches about the human factor in information security. She has been the information security officer at the FHWS since 2017. Kristin Weber is also an author, speaker, and consultant for information security awareness, ISMS, data governance, data quality and master data management.

Prof. Dr. Melanie Volkamer is a full professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). She leads the SECUSO research group. Her research focuses on human factors in security, i.e. security awareness / training and usable security. 

Monika is a cyber security specialist currently responsible for security awareness and training at Raiffeisen Switzerland. Her goal is to provide Raiffeisen employees with interactive and lasting trainings. Her previous experience was as an information security consultant, focusing on governance, risk and compliance as well as the security aspects relevant in outsourcing processes. She also volunteers as a job coach for Powercoders, an organisation which is paving the way for refugees and migrants who would like to build a career in IT.

Georgios Skaliotis holds a BSC in Actuarial Science and Mathematics from the University of Manchester, after which he followed a career in Information Security. He is working at PwC for 3.5 years, with main focus in Third Party and Client Risk Management, Security Awareness, Audit and Compliance.

Katrien Eggers is a Communication Officer and Spokesperson at the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB) since 2017. Before that, she worked as a communication and behavioural change expert for the federal government and non-profit organisations (health insurance and hospital sector).

Kathrin Noack is part of the CISO Office at ETH Zurich and has been responsible for project management in information security there since 2020. The focus of her work is on IT security awareness as well as on communicating knowledge about risks when handling confidential data at ETH. Previously, Kathrin coordinated projects to promote scientific collaborations at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in the field of Cyber Security Research.

Dr. Thomas Schlienger has specialised in the subject of Information Security Culture, in particular on the questions of sustainability and measuring of Security Awareness. Since 2002 he has dealt with this subject, at first during his academic career, since 2005 with his own company. He has written his doctoral thesis about Information Security Culture at the University of Fribourg. Thomas Schlienger is an author of numerous professional and scientific publications, ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and lecturer at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the Luzern University of Applied Sciences.

During his geography studies, Eric's great curiosity got the best of him. To discover the wide world, he turned to Human Resources, which allowed him to live and work in Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Italy.

Eric is fascinated by the diversity of places and people and their way of developing themselves individually and bringing their skills and knowledge to companies. Since it has long been part of his job to train employees, he has developed several learning tools himself.

In times of digitalization, it is natural for Eric to turn to digital learning as well. However, in his opinion, two important elements for success have been missing until now, which is why most employees do not benefit enough from further training: namely, a playful aspect mixed with a bit of competition. The first time he played a Serious Game, it was love at first sight - which he now wants to share with his customers.