On September 17, INMA awarded 30 young professionals around the world with its debut “30 Under 30” award as part of its Young Professionals Initiative. This is the 28th in a series of 30 features about these impressive rising media stars who are shaping our industry. 

After working at a cybersecurity start-up in Tel Aviv for a year, Bente Zerrahn returned to her native Germany and realised how overlooked cybersecurity was. She also recognised an opportunity to solve that problem.

She pitched her ideas to the chief information security officer at Axel Springer and, in June 2019, the company created the position of cybersecurity analyst.

“There were no efforts to inform and train employees how to deal with novel digital threats,” she said. “This led me to build a cybersecurity training and workshop programme from the ground up.”

As she became more familiar with the company’s workings, she identified additional needs and pitched a new position to the Axel Springer executive board, in which she could deliver solutions to the opportunities and threats created by digitalisation — a position she currently holds. 

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