Outpost24 | Cybersecurity Woman of the Year | Cybersecurity Stars Awards 2026

Overview

Founded in 2001 by a team of ethical hackers in Karlskrona, Sweden, Outpost24 is a leading global provider of cybersecurity risk management solutions. The company helps over 3,000 organizations across 65+ countries proactively identify, manage, and reduce cyber risk across both their digital and human attack surfaces.

Outpost24 operates through two specialized divisions. Outpost24 Attack Surface Management focuses on complete exposure management, cyber threat intelligence, and application security, enabling customers to discover what they own, identify what is exposed, prioritize risk, and validate remediation. Specops Identity Security is a specialist in Zero Trust Workforce Access, password security, and identity management solutions that secure both human and non-human elements of the attack surface.

Backed by Vitruvian Partners, Outpost24 combines over two decades of offensive security expertise with deep technical capabilities. With 300+ employees and a global footprint spanning 14 offices across the US, UK, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Israel, and its Swedish headquarters, Outpost24 acts as a seamless extension of its customers' security teams.

Key Capabilities

Career Trajectory: A Rapid Rise Through Technical Leadership

Olivia Brännlund's path to the CISO role at Outpost24 is a story of rapid advancement earned through technical excellence and consistent impact. She joined Outpost24 in 2022 as a technical coordinator and was quickly promoted to technical architect responsible for the platform team. In that role, she was the driving force behind the design of the security architecture for Outpost24's orchestration platform, a foundational contribution that strengthened the company's cybersecurity posture and the protection of its systems and customer data. She was subsequently promoted to Deputy CISO, and in August 2025, Outpost24 announced her promotion to Chief Information Security Officer.

This progression, from technical coordinator to C-suite executive in approximately three years, reflects both the depth of her contributions and Outpost24's commitment to recognizing talent from within. It is rare in the cybersecurity industry for a professional to move from an operational technical role to CISO within a single organization in such a compressed timeframe, and it speaks to the scale of impact Olivia has delivered at every stage.

Prior Experience: Security Architecture at Ericsson and Qvantel

Before joining Outpost24, Olivia built her security foundations at two major telecommunications firms. At Ericsson, she served as a security architect responsible for security work within the 5G field, one of the most complex and high-stakes areas in modern telecommunications infrastructure. Earlier in her career, she held a security architect role at Qvantel, where she helped secure the Business Support Solution. This background in critical infrastructure security, spanning 5G networks and telecom business systems, gave Olivia the technical depth and architectural thinking that she later brought to Outpost24's platform security.

Leading Outpost24's Security Posture and Accreditation

As CISO, Olivia has led Outpost24 through a period of significant security maturation. She has been instrumental in driving the company's accreditation efforts, including the ISO 27001 certification process conducted with Into Security. For a cybersecurity vendor whose customers entrust it with their most sensitive security data, maintaining rigorous internal security standards is not optional; it is foundational to the trust relationship. Olivia's leadership in this area ensures that Outpost24 practices what it sells, holding itself to the same standards it helps its customers achieve.

A People-First Approach to Security Leadership

Olivia's leadership style is defined by what Outpost24 describes as "technical acumen and a people-first approach." In her own words: "My priority is ensuring we remain ahead by empowering our team, innovating our approach to security, and reinforcing trust with our customers and partners." This philosophy, centering team empowerment alongside technical innovation, is particularly significant in an industry where security leaders often face the challenge of driving compliance and risk reduction without alienating the teams they depend on. Olivia's ability to combine rigorous security standards with a collaborative, empowering leadership model is a key reason for her rapid advancement and the trust placed in her by Outpost24's executive team.

Industry Voice and Advocacy for Women in Cybersecurity

Olivia has been an active voice in the conversation around women in cybersecurity. She has participated in media interviews and industry commentary, including contributing to International Women in Cyber Day coverage, where she spoke about the opportunities the cybersecurity industry offers and the encouraging trend of more women stepping into senior leadership positions. She has completed multiple rounds of media interviews as a representative of Outpost24, positioning herself as a visible and accessible role model for women entering or advancing in the field. In an industry where women remain significantly underrepresented in C-level security roles, Olivia's trajectory from technical contributor to CISO provides a tangible example of what is possible.

How we are different

Technical Coordinator to CISO in Three Years

The most striking element of Olivia's story is the speed and authenticity of her rise. She did not join Outpost24 in a senior leadership role; she joined as a technical coordinator and earned every subsequent promotion through demonstrated impact. Designing the security architecture for the orchestration platform, driving accreditation initiatives, and building the internal security culture are not achievements typically associated with someone who started in an operational coordination role just three years prior. This trajectory is exceptional by any measure, and it is particularly notable in cybersecurity, where the path to CISO typically spans decades and multiple organizations.

CISO of a Cybersecurity Vendor

Being CISO at any organization is demanding. Being CISO at a cybersecurity vendor carries a unique weight: the company's own security posture is inseparable from its credibility in the market. Outpost24 helps over 3,000 organizations manage their cyber risk. If its internal security practices did not meet the highest standards, neither its customers nor the industry would take its products seriously. Olivia is responsible for ensuring that Outpost24's security is not just adequate but exemplary, setting the standard for the customers the company serves. This is a level of scrutiny and responsibility that distinguishes her role from most CISO positions.

Critical Infrastructure Background Applied to Cybersecurity

Olivia's background in 5G security architecture at Ericsson and telecom infrastructure security at Qvantel is not a typical path into a cybersecurity vendor CISO role. This critical infrastructure experience gives her a perspective that many cybersecurity leaders lack: a deep understanding of how security architecture decisions play out in large-scale, high-availability environments where failure has real-world consequences. She brings that same architectural rigor to Outpost24's platform and internal security, informed by the knowledge that security design must hold up under the most demanding operational conditions.

Driving Accreditation and Compliance from the Inside

Olivia has led Outpost24's ISO 27001 certification process and broader accreditation efforts, ensuring the company meets the compliance standards its customers depend on. This work is often invisible from the outside but is foundational to a cybersecurity vendor's market position. Under her leadership, Outpost24 has strengthened its certifications portfolio, which now includes ISO/IEC 27001, CREST, Cyber Essentials, and SOC 2. These are not inherited credentials; they are the result of sustained internal effort that Olivia has driven and overseen.

A Visible Role Model in a Sector That Needs Them

Women remain underrepresented in cybersecurity leadership globally. According to industry research, women hold only a fraction of CISO roles worldwide, and the gap is even more pronounced in technical security leadership as opposed to compliance or governance tracks. Olivia's path is significant because it is rooted in technical work: she advanced through hands-on security architecture, not through a non-technical management track. Her willingness to participate in media interviews, contribute to industry commentary on International Women in Cyber Day, and serve as a public-facing representative of Outpost24 means she is not just occupying a leadership role; she is actively demonstrating that technically grounded women can and do reach the highest levels of cybersecurity leadership.

Endorsed by Her CEO

When Outpost24 announced Olivia's promotion to CISO, CEO Ido Erlichman described it as "a well-deserved recognition of her many contributions and strong visionary approach to cybersecurity," adding that "her deep understanding of risk management, security architecture and compliance continue to make her an invaluable asset to Outpost24." This endorsement from the company's top executive reflects the scale of Olivia's impact and the confidence the organization places in her leadership.

Olivia Brännlund, CISO · Outpost24