Press Release

CyberDesk Launches to Bring Exploding Data Exposure Across Human and Non-human Identities Back Under Control

Today, most organizations grapple with widespread over-provisioning of data access, with fewer than 5% of permissions being actively used. CyberDesk, a Munich-based cybersecurity company, aims to solve this global threat and now announced the official launch of its identity centric data security platform. Supported by numerous cybersecurity thought-leaders, CyberDesk has developed a comprehensive security suite around its core Access Graph to combat data exposure and permission sprawl. Covering both human and non-human identities, the platform helps to adaptively control who can perform what actions with what data. In a world of increasingly successful data breaches, leading international companies choose CyberDesk to protect their hybrid, multi-cloud environments.

Munich, Germany – July 17, 2024 – CyberDesk today announced the general availability of its Identity Centric Data Security platform, which minimizes data exposure while ensuring the right identities have the right access at the right time. Deeply rooted in and co-developed with the European cybersecurity community, it is built to combat one of the biggest cybersecurity risks: compromised identities.

With 90% of the world's data only generated in the last two years and more and more business processes being automated across the cloud, most organizations struggle with rampant over-provisioning of data access to both human and non-human identities (such as service accounts, secrets, API keys, tokens, and certificates). A single compromised account can have disastrous effects in such settings.

“Attackers don't hack; they log in. Identity-based vulnerabilities continue to be the #1 cause of data breaches. Whether it is human users falling for sophisticated phishing attacks or compromised machine identities granting unauthorized access, the identity factor remains a critical weak point. What's more alarming? Artificial intelligence is now amplifying this threat. Attackers are leveraging AI to create more convincing social engineering schemes like deepfakes and automate the discovery of identity-based vulnerabilities at scale. The best defense is to minimize the data accessible to any identity at any time without disrupting business. But today, organizations are missing a critical piece to minimize data exposure: Visibility of authorization at data level. That’s why we built CyberDesk.” – Dr. Tobias Lieberum, Co-Founder and CEO of CyberDesk

The CyberDesk platform helps to adaptively control who can perform what actions on which data, enabling businesses to respond to ever-changing access needs continuously. This allows teams to pursue their best ideas while keeping sensitive data secure. Key features of the CyberDesk platform include:

Comprehensive Identity and Data Discovery: CyberDesk automatically discovers all identity and data inventory across systems, providing transparency on their lifecycle and posture with deep contextual insights—who owns them, who consumes them, what resources they grant access to, and with which privileges.
Dynamic Access Control: CyberDesk’s Access Graph visually maps via which groups, roles, and permissions human and non-human identities can take what actions on what sensitive data. This precise tracking of data authorization paths enables least privilege access, usage tracking, and segregation of duties.
Continuous Risk Detection & Remediation: By continuously tracking against the baseline behavior, CyberDesk identifies, classifies, and resolves security risks, drastically shortening the time to incident detection and resolution. During incident response, the platform allows for easy investigation of which data was affected by a compromised account.

CyberDesk's innovative approach has already attracted leading international organizations seeking to protect their hybrid, multi-cloud environments and meet stringent regulatory requirements, such as DORA and NIS-2.

“We decided for CyberDesk for its unparalleled management of data and identities and comprehensive access control. Their user-friendly platform has empowered us with clarity and direction, making it easy to detect and address access issues and relieve the burden on our internal team.” – Michael Siebers, CTO and Co-Founder of Holidu, a CyberDesk customer

The booming AI market is also driving many organizations to seek CyberDesk’s support as they struggle to balance the innovation power of AI with the risk of losing control over their data. As AI initiatives emerge across company departments, often without the knowledge and oversight of the central security team, maintaining visibility and governance becomes virtually impossible.

"CyberDesk emerged from our firsthand experiences with the massive challenges of securing data access in cloud environments. Our platform is designed to harness the potential of data while keeping them secure. Our ambition is to help reduce cybersecurity risk by up to 80%." – Prabhakar Mishra, Co-Founder and CTO of CyberDesk

The founders are not alone in their vision. Numerous senior executives of the European cybersecurity ecosystem support the team, including Benjamin Bachmann (Director Group Information Security & Enterprise Architecture at Bilfinger), Jimmy Heschl (Global Head of Digital Security at Red Bull), Max Imbiel (CISO of Bitpanda), Martin Jetter (retired SVP & Chairman at IBM Europe, Middle East & Africa), Ümit Kuşdoğan (CISO of ADAC), Uli Mittermaier (former Head of Strategic Sales at Zscaler), Matthias Muhlert (CISO of Oetker-Group), Andreas Reisenauer (Head of Infrastructure, Datacom & Security at Elia Group), Michael v. Roeder (CDO & CIO of Elia Group), Christian Taube (Head of Cyber Services International at Beazley), and Alexander Zhitenev (CISO & Director IT Corporate Systems at IFCO).

“I am proud to support CyberDesk on its path to building Europe’s leading platform for identity centric data security. The team’s vision addresses a major pain point in today’s cybersecurity landscape. What they have achieved is remarkable, promising even more exciting developments in the coming months.” – Ümit Kuşdoğan, CISO of ADAC

In addition, CyberDesk is supported by thought leaders, including Mario Götze (professional athlete), Sebastian Johnston (serial entrepreneur), Remy A. Lazarovici (MD DACH Celonis), Dr Oliver Merkel (Founder & CEO Flink), Dr Ralph Müller (COO ING-DiBa), Dr Gerald Schönbucher (CEO Kaufland e-commerce & Board Member Schwarz Digits), Kai Uhlig (serial entrepreneur), institutional investors (Venture Stars, Possible Ventures, TKM, AngelInvest), and the Munich start-up ecosystem (UnternehmerTUM, Gründerland Bayern).

Founders

Dr. Tobias Lieberum & Prabhakar Mishra

Year of foundation

2022

Headquarters

Munich, Germany

About CyberDesk

Founded in 2022 and based in Munich, Germany, CyberDesk is led by Dr. Tobias Lieberum and Prabhakar Mishra. In their previous careers in sensitive environments in banking and consulting, the founders firsthand witnessed the challenges of securing data access in the cloud. In lack of a satisfactory solution, they decided to solve this global threat themselves.