2021 Highlights and Insights: Netacea’s Top 5

2021 has been a whirlwind of a year for most, with lockdown restrictions easing, businesses re-opening, and people finally being able to see their family and friends in person again. For Netacea, 2021 has been all about strengthening our remote-first team and finally venturing back into the office to meet new and old colleagues face to face once again.

As we look forward to 2022, we’ve compiled a list of 2021 highlights, from our top-performing content to winning awards for our industry-leading technology.

Netacea launched BLADE Framework™, Cybersecurity Sessions podcast, popular webinar featuring Forrester, and more

The entire Netacea team has worked hard to produce informative and insightful content throughout 2021. Some of the more notable pieces include:

• The Threat Research Team’s pioneering work to launch the BLADE Framework – an open-source framework created to help cybersecurity professionals identify the tactics and techniques used by adversaries to exploit weaknesses in the business logic of web-facing systems (websites and APIs).
• A variety of insightful webinars on a bunch of bot-centered topics featuring a host of wonderful guest speakers from Forrester, Spike Digital and LeapShift.
• The launch of our brand-new podcast series Cybersecurity Sessions. Each 20-minute episode of the Cybersecurity Sessions podcast can be found on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts and YouTube.
• Our soccer-centric guide “The Return of the English Premier League: Arb Betting in Action”, which proved to be a popular post on our social platforms
• Over 70 new blogs on a variety of cybersecurity topics. Some of our most popular include: “How bots are being used to skew NFT prices for big profit”, “The rise of social media data breaches”, and “Genesis Market: A hacker’s haven of stolen credentials”.

Netacea’s cybersecurity expertise referenced across print, radio and TV

From scalper bots stealing hot-topic items from frustrated consumers to credential stuffing bots hacking accounts and stealing loyalty points, bots are being talked about all over the web. In 2021, Netacea was asked to share our knowledge on all things bot across the media.

Print

Netacea has been referenced in several publications throughout 2021, including VentureBeat and DarkReading. In November, Netacea spoke to the Daily Mail to discuss the impact of scalper bots on buying Christmas gifts.

Gartner named Netacea a Representative Vendor in the Gartner 2021 Market Guide for Online Fraud Detection, whilst also recognizing us as a Sample Vendor in the 2021 Gartner Hype Cycle for Application Security Report.

Netacea was recently featured in Forrester’s Now Tech: Bot Management, Q4 2021 report, in recognition of being a prominent solution in the bot management space.

Radio

Earlier this year Netacea was called upon for our expert knowledge of the bot landscape by BBC Radio 4’s You&Yours radio program, as part of a segment called “City Living; Retail Bots; Work from Bed”.

TV

Our Head of Threat Research Matthew Gracey-McMinn shared his bot expertise to an audience of 1.94 million on Fox 5 New York, where he discussed concerns over bots scooping up COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

Additionally, as scalper bots continued to plague those trying desperately to get hold of a PlayStation 5, Matthew was also featured during a segment discussing this topic on The Nine. His appearance on the show is available to watch here.

Netacea Senior Data Analyst Paulina Cakalli nominated for three awards and shared expert knowledge with university students

At Netacea we celebrate the achievements of all our team members, but in 2021 one member of the Netacea team deserved some special recognition. Not only was Senior Data Analyst Paulina Cakalli nominated for two awards in the WomenTech Network Global Awards 2021, (the Ambassador Award and the Community Award), but she was also a finalist in the Cyber Security Awards “Cyber Woman of the Year” category. Well done, Paulina!

In the months leading up to her award nominations, Paulina returned as a graduate to the University of Tirana in Albania to deliver a presentation to its current students. As part of “The Power” workshop, Paulina delivered her presentation, “Analyzing Web Traffic to Detect and Mitigate Malicious Bots”, which was both a valuable asset to all the current students, and a great representation of how far Paulina has come in her computing career.

You can see Paulina’s talents in action in an on-demand Technical Showcase webinar: “How Netacea Delivers Rapid Results with Advanced Bot Protection”.

Netacea family reunited

After over 18 months of remote working, the Netacea team was reunited at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester! Colleagues old and new traveled from all over the country for the quarterly business update – with some even flying in from the USA – to meet, for many, for the first time!

Netacea won two awards and was a finalist for many more

Team Netacea was delighted to have been a finalist in several awards throughout 2021 and was ecstatic that our technology won two prestigious awards this year.

Following our win at the UK Business Tech Awards for “Best Application of Tech – Security” in 2020, we set our sights higher and entered the global awards in 2021. We were thrilled to have been awarded the title of “Best Application of Tech – Security” – this time globally! Netacea was also awarded the title of “Security Innovation of the Year” at the Payments Awards in Autumn 2021.

With so many amazing things in 2021 to reflect on, it comes as no surprise that Netacea is already looking forward to a bright and busy 2022! From the whole Netacea team we wish you a very happy holidays and a wonderful new year, and look forward to seeing you at one of our webinars or events in 2022!