Case Study: Erste Group boosts secure coding awareness with Secure Code Warrior

Supercharged Security Awareness How Tournaments Are Inspiring Developers at Erste Group

Erste Group, one of the largest financial institutions in Central and Eastern Europe, needed a way to strengthen secure coding awareness across hundreds of developers working in different countries, languages, and regulatory environments. With varied skill levels, legacy systems, and a need to support both security best practices and compliance, the bank looked for a practical, engaging training approach. Secure Code Warrior’s secure coding platform, including tournaments and Courses, was chosen to help make security training relevant and accessible.

Secure Code Warrior implemented a voluntary company-wide secure coding tournament and then expanded into curated learning paths with baseline assessments and short, job-relevant challenges. The approach helped drive strong engagement: out of 200 invitees, 55 developers participated in the tournament, 85% completed the optional course structure, and developers spent an average of about 2 hours per month upskilling. Secure Code Warrior also helped Erste Group see a 12% performance improvement among developers who upskilled before competing, while building momentum for broader compliance training and stronger security awareness.

Erste Group

Michal Sramka

Senior Security Architect