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Spirion receives International Business Award for response to global pandemic

International Business Award or Most Valuable Corporate ResponseThe 2020 International Business Awards named Spirion a Bronze Stevie Award winner for “Most Valuable Corporate Response” in the COVID-19 Response category. Today’s win brings our total number of Stevie Awards to four for the year.

Back in May, we were awarded three Stevies as part of the American Business Awards, which included two Gold Stevies for International Data Protection Solution and Postsecondary Enterprise Solution and one Silver Stevie for Governance, Risk, and Compliance Solution. We are especially proud to win in the COVID-19 Response Category for two programs that we quickly rallied together as a team to launch – aiding local restaurant workers and helping the new remote workforce in response to the global health crisis.

What are the International Business Awards?

The International Business Awards (IBA) are the world’s premier business awards program. The 2020 IBAs received more than 3,800 nominations from organizations of all sizes in virtually every industry and across 63 nations and territories. This year’s competition featured several categories to recognize organizations’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The commitment we’ve seen through these nominations to maintaining the success, health, and safety of employees, customers, and communities is truly impressive,” said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher.

Judges for the International Business Awards recognized the “two generous projects by Spirion to help protect personal data on work-from-home employees’ computers and to provide meals to restaurant staff during the COVID-19 lockdown.” The judges stated, “the reason for the high score is the creative application of the brand to providing value to sectors that are very much in need. The safety and security issue was perfectly highlighted with solutions provided at no cost for a period of time that companies and employees could actually implement. The selection of the restaurant sector to creatively support was very well done. Excellent campaign.”

Below is an update on our global pandemic response programs:

No-Cost Tools to Safeguard Remote Workforce

In March, we introduced free resources to help both remote employees and enterprises implement a ‘privacy-first’ work environment in response to the global pandemic. Spirion launched a 60-day no-cost license for organizations to use our software to search remote workforce computers for personal data. We also provided a no-cost download of our Data Discovery Agent to help remote workers discover personal information living on their computers. The agent finds information—such as social security, credit card, bank account, driver’s license numbers, and passwords—displaying the type and location of discovered data so remote workers can take measures to secure their personal information.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recently confirmed a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with The Hill, Tonya Ugoretz, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said, “We have increased vulnerabilities online, and increased interest from threat actors to exploit those.” She further states that “the ‘rapid shift to telework’ has opened up a huge amount of cyber vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit.”

Restaurant Relief Program

In April, Spirion launched a second global pandemic response program, called This One’s On Us, to aid local restaurant workers impacted by the shutdowns to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. Since mid-April, company employees have participated in the program by donating a percentage of our paychecks to purchase meals from local eateries to give to the restaurant’s staff.

We are happy to report that we have raised $10,000, which has fed more than 800 restaurant workers and their families.

In the words of the International Business Awards judges, “Please take a breather from working so hard. You have already done such excellent work. It’s time to celebrate now!” While the battle for data privacy is 24/7, we will take a moment to reflect on the individuals and businesses we have been able to help during this most unprecedented time.