Beauceron

CYBERSECURITY

Gamifying cybersecurity to harness people power

eople are often seen as the weak link in cybersecurity. But not for David Shipley and Beauceron Security. They know that people don’t have to be the weak link; they can be the best cyberdefense for any organization—if you help motivate them to make good choices about how they use technology, says Shipley.

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When Shipley talks about Beauceron Security and the safest ways for everyday people to interact with the digital world, he sounds not only like a lifelong tech evangelist but a man on a mission: to fight and win against cyberattacks. “I believe in the power of technology to make people’s lives better,” he says. That said, he adds, “People must also learn to make a set of choices about where and how they use technology, so that ultimately people think critically about it.”

In seven years, Beauceron has grown to support more than 1,000 organizations and help nearly a million people reduce their cyber risk. Shipley has a goal to go much further and help many more people and organizations. They key to success is helping organization realize that the story isn’t about raising awareness about cybersecurity anymore.

“In 2024, we don’t have a cybersecurity awareness problem; we have a cyber motivation issue. So our challenge in 2025 is to leverage what we’ve learned from psychology, neuroscience, and biology to help motivate people to make good decisions about technology, so they can reduce cyber risk and, most important, thrive in our digital world.”

Beauceron uses interactive tools and educational materials to create a gamified experience that teaches employees how to tackle threats like phishing—and celebrates when they do the right thing. People who see themselves as an important part of protecting their organization are one-third less likely to click on a phishing email, the most common form of cyberattack today, according to Beauceron’s research.

The key to cyber risk isn’t simply overloading people with information. It’s showing them they matter and encouraging them to apply what they’ve learned consistently. “Apple didn’t invent the treadmill; it just motivated people to get up and close their rings,” says Shipley. “We do the same thing for cybersecurity. When people learn and, most important, show they’ve applied that learning, they get a great personal cyber risk score.”

Beauceron helps people get those scores through activities like reporting simulated phishing emails it sends out monthly. They also get points for catching and reporting real attacks that got through their organization’s email filter.

Beauceron’s AI-enabled tools analyze tens of thousands of suspicious emails monthly to not only thwart phishing but also to create personalized tips for users to improve their security knowledge. The made–in–New Brunswick approach reduces risk to organizations from phishing by 8 times in the first 90 days. Going to market with strategic channel partners who are able to offer the full suite of security services to their customers has also been a key aspect of Beauceron’s success.

While the role of tech entrepreneur comes naturally to Shipley, this was not the path he had envisioned for his professional life. Instead, like a growing number of professionals in Canada’s Atlantic region, he was drawn into the fintech world through a combination of innovative universities, a culture of working to overcome adversity, and some good old-fashioned serendipity.

Headquarters: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Founded: 2016
No. of employees: 42+
Website: beauceronsecurity.com

A dozen years ago, Shipley was working on the marketing team at the University of New Brunswick while also studying there for his MBA. His simple ambition was to remain a university employee until retirement, but his dream was disrupted on Mother’s Day 2012, when UNB’s network was hacked by a group calling themselves “Team Digi7al.”

“My company was in many ways an accident,” he says. “I just happened to see the email first. I also happened to have a certain set of skills from previously working in the military and in journalism, and I wanted to help. So I rolled up my sleeves and helped UNB’s chief information officer deal with the breach.”

Fast-forward to 2017 and Shipley’s career had been utterly transformed. He was chief executive of Beauceron Security, named after the French working dogs bred to hunt wild boar and herd sheep and cattle. “We’re harnessing the idea of turning people from being the passive targets of cybercriminals into active defenders of their own security,” he says.

It’s no accident that Atlantic Canada has become such a hub for fintechs. The region is home to several of Canada’s largest banks and has long embraced cutting-edge technology. For example, in 1986 New Brunswick became a digital pioneer when the local phone company installed an early fiber-optic network. That may seem out of step with the province’s reputation as a center for fishing and growing potatoes, but it makes perfect sense once you realize that as Canada’s only official bilingual province, New Brunswick was a natural location for telemarketing call centers.

Shipley says the region is also buoyed by “a strong sense of community, where businesspeople look out for each other and ask, ‘How can I help other local firms?’ There’s so much goodwill and desire to see Atlantic Canada thrive and be a success.”