Internationalisation of IT company Spirity starts in Austria

Interview with András Lányi, VP of Sales at Spirity 

Everyone is talking about cyber security, but are most companies aware of the risks of an attack?  

Unfortunately, most companies are only trying to fulfil regulatory requirements, for example NIS2 or ISO27001. Others only see cyber risk as a minor issue. Many SMB leaders and owners have the attitude that their company is too small, and not interesting enough for cyber criminals. This cannot be further from the truth. Some say that there are two types of companies i.e., those that have already been hacked and the ones that have yet to be hacked. With the increasingly sophisticated possibilities enabled by AI, threat actors can scale their “operations” and can easily find weak spots even at small and medium size businesses. Can you imagine that by 2030, 100 billion devices will be connected to the internet? That means 100 billion points of entry for the threat actors! 

What services in the field of cybersecurity and other IT areas does Spirity offer its customers, and which companies already rely on your services?  

We focus on three cyber security risk areas:  

1. Managing risks related to suppliers,  
2. threat intelligence based preventive solutions,  
3. and the planning and management of cyber risks.  

Incidents related to suppliers is the fastest growing threat area within the cyber risk domain. Companies use more and more integrated and outsourced services for their operations. These services can create a back door to core systems for adversaries. Our solution provides a 24/7 service to monitor the clients’ vendors. We help vendors in identifying their weaknesses and mitigating their risk exposure. 

One of the most important assets of a company is the brand trusted by its customers. Threat actors are also aware of this and use this to their advantage. They generate phishing campaigns and impersonate webpages and applications in the name of a trusted brand. Based on our threat intelligence-based service, we identify and take down impersonating webpages and apps preventing them to go live and causing problems. We scan the dark web and chat rooms for suspicious activities affecting our client’s brand.     

CISOs are facing the challenge of managing and planning their cyber risk management activities. How to comply (for example NIS2), how to budget, how to prioritize? Our AI driven solution integrates all these challenges into in an easy-to-understand platform, with which the client can save time, money, resources and manage cyber risks.  

How did Spirity come to be founded in 2019 in Hungary, and why did you expand to Vienna shortly after? 

Our founder is a well-known IT and security professional in Hungary with a vision of building a company with an international flair. Vienna is the economic capital of Central and Eastern Europe. Decisions are extremely centralized in our industry, and regarding security in general. Many companies have their HQs in Austria and this is the reason our first international expansion step took us to Austria.  

What potential do you see for your services in Austria? 

I consider Austria as a great business hub of our region with a huge international exposure. Therefore, we see a substantial opportunity in developing our business activities in Austria.  

How did ABA support you? 

When a company decides to step outside of its “home turf” and begin a foreign adventure, it is always nice to have a helping hand. This helping hand for us was ABA, with very helpful and professional people working in a very open-minded environment.  

What do you consider to be the most important underlying conditions and strengths of the Austrian business location for your type of company? What is the country’s unique selling proposition? 

In addition to Austria being a great business hub for a company coming from this region, I would also have to highlight our common history and cultural background. I think this is very important in understanding the people and the markets in Austria.   

Do you have plans for further expansion westwards? 

We have already covered the CEE region with our partners, and yes, we have our eyes on Western Europe.   

And finally, one last question: what do you personally value the most about Austria? 

That is a hard question to answer, because the country has so much to offer. If I had to choose one, I would say the fantastic city of Vienna.