In today's digital landscape, cybersecurity threats are a constant concern for organizations of all sizes. Human error remains a leading cause of breaches, with statistics suggesting that approximately 90% of cybersecurity incidents can be attributed to employees falling victim to phishing attacks.

Tiffany Ricks first identified the critical need for effective cybersecurity training while working as an engineer at the Department of Defense, which inspired her to pursue a career as an ethical hacker. "Workforces were frequently falling victim to phishing attacks while IT teams struggled to identify and eliminate the source," explains Tiffany. To address this critical gap in employee cybersecurity awareness, she founded HacWare, an AI-powered cybersecurity education platform designed to transform risky security habits into strengths.

HacWare provides automated cybersecurity awareness training to staff by utilizing a patent-pending AI technology to create immersive security awareness training experiences. These phishing simulations mimic real-world attacks, and are paired with videos, pop quizzes, and newsletters to engage employees and empower them to identify and avoid potential threats. AI-supervised learning helps to identify phishing attacks and understand hacker tactics, while a personalized recommendation engine suggests short-form training tailored to individual needs.

The HacWare team utilizes Google AI tools such as BigQuery AI and Gemini to analyze unstructured phishing data, quickly glean more insights and improve data cleaning processes. The platform now identifies approximately 280,000 vulnerabilities per month, protecting $40 million of business revenue from ransomware and phishing losses, and improving training completion rates by 75%.

Most recently, Tiffany was selected for the Google for Startups Founders Fund, which provides high-potential AI startups addressing critical issues like cybersecurity with non-dilutive funding and hands-on Google mentorship. Tiffany is using the investment to streamline operational costs, improve decision-making processes for scale and go global. "The funding from Google for Startups will allow us to expand the team and strengthen channel partnerships with over 3,000 IT solution providers in the North America, EMEA, and APAC markets," Ricks said.

Tiffany is excited to scale her approach to solving the root cause of data breaches – and help protect fellow entrepreneurs in the process. "Our vision is about revolutionizing cybersecurity, education, and protection; powering organizations of all sizes against evolving threats," she says. "AI technology can help democratize this education so a company of any size can ensure their employees understand what phishing looks like so they know how to get out of harm's way."