The year that passed – Sicra 2024

Sicra 2024 has been an eventful year. We have worked hard to build something that will have greater future significance in the market and establish new services that we hope will be useful and enjoyable for our customers. 2025 will be a year where we invest even more in building capacity and capability.

Sicra 2024 has, of course, been marked by the process that led to signing with partner and investor Credo Partners. Beforehand, there was a process with the owners, and during the process, alternatives were explored before making a decision.

Once the decision was made, a due diligence process began. It involves a lot of documentation and more conversations with lawyers and auditors than we are used to. We have everything in order, so this process did not present any major challenges.

The motive behind the partnership and investment collaboration with Credo is to build a Sicra that creates even greater value for our customers. This happens by increasing capacity, building new services that address the resource shortage in the market, and building an organization with less dependency on individuals.

We are committed to institutionalizing the culture and well-being that have been central to our development and growth so far, and which will continue to be so. Sicra is essentially a group of skilled people who enjoy working together.

New services

It is obvious to most that cyber risk has become a business risk. It is no longer a responsibility that is simply delegated to IT management but is high on the board's and business management's agenda. One of the challenges leaders face is navigating a foreign market with resource scarcity and a multitude of offerings of varying quality and cost.

We have chosen to collaborate with Arctic Wolf, one of the world's leading providers of security solutions. They are the core of our new Sicra SOC (Security Operations Center).

Together with Arctic Wolf, we offer capacity, quality, and implementation time that is challenging to match in less resource-rich environments. In a global arms race, access to resources and size is, in our view, essential to deliver a credible service.

We also believe it is healthy for this service to be provided by someone other than the one managing the environment, to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure objectivity.

With Sicra Operations Center, customers get a competent Norwegian conversation and contract partner who simplifies workflow and contact in daily operations.

Our collaboration with leading Norwegian specialist environments such as River Security and O3 Cyber provides additional resources for Sicra's customers. Throughout the year, we have won contracts with an annual value of just under 8 million in this area, including for 35 municipalities in Norway.

Another news is that we now offer CISO-for-hire (Chief Information Security Officer).

There are too few who have this experience and competence in the market. Many companies struggle to bring such competence into their own organization, and for some, it may also be a question of whether it can be justified economically.

We are therefore building a resource group that can be engaged on a project basis and draw on our other resources. One can then engage expert competence to raise their own security level, and if desired, managed by the SOC service afterward.

Through the collaboration with River Security, we can also challenge and quality assure existing SOC deliveries and verify that the service delivers what it should. They also create a smart continuous check of the external vulnerability surface that we have included in our portfolio.

Increased capacity in Sicra 2024

Sicra 2024 has also meant more skilled people. Throughout the year, we have signed 13 new employees. Some of them start in the new year, while others are well underway.

Among them are several new good consultants, increased capacity in sales and marketing, and leadership capacity. As before, we recruit selectively.

A Sicra consultant has a minimum of 5 years of Enterprise experience and is a specialist in their field.

Internal work – ISO27001 and NIS2

In recent years, the authorities have been clear that society must go through a collective effort to raise our general security level. This is enshrined in legislation, and for Norway, NIS2 will be reflected in Norwegian law by 2025. We believe many are poorly prepared for the requirements that suppliers and partners will impose.

We have always focused on our own security. This must also be easily documented for our connections in the future, so we chose to start an ISO27001/NIS2 compliance work.

We went up to Audit-1 on December 17 and will go for certification in mid-February. Scancert was very satisfied with us. Along the way, we have placed great emphasis on ensuring that technical reality is well reflected in the ISO framework and that we end up with a usable management system that everyone at Sicra can use in their daily work.

We have several consultants who are SANS trained and certified "incident handlers," and we have now also applied to NSM for approval in the "Quality Scheme for Suppliers Handling ICT Incidents."

We have also been working on refining our strategy and value proposition, and this includes developing a new graphic profile and a new sicra.no, which will be launched in the new year.

Sicra 2024 has meant good development

Despite a larger internal agenda than previous years, we have completed the year with good development. After the end of November, we have around 10% revenue growth compared to the same period last year.

Sicra runs a profitable business even though we are now and in the future investing more than before. Throughout the year, we have published a number of technical articles, and we are pleased that these are being read. There have been about 36,000 page views so far this year, an increase of 61% compared to last year.

A good way to keep up with our new publications is to follow our company page on LinkedIn. The number of followers increased by 24% throughout the year.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all customers and connections for good cooperation. We greatly appreciate the trust and all the opportunities in what has been a challenging year for many. We hope the new year will bring calmer conditions in the world, but we are preparing for more of what 2024 has had to offer.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Sicra!