Cyber Range Concierge: Helping Companies Become Proactive in Addressing Cybersecurity

Getting and staying ahead of industry trends to create opportunities for our clients and their industries is the heart and soul of what we do here at RESET.

Increasingly, these trends and opportunities are centered around cybersecurity.

As a team, we knew this was one trend that we couldn’t afford to ignore. In fact, no industry afford to ignore it.

The Cybersecurity Gap

Currently in the U.S., there are over 300,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions — and by 2022, that number is expected to grow to more than 1.8 million. Some studies estimate that number to be closer to 3.5 million.

The cybersecurity field is expected to grow by 28% between 2016 and 2026, compared to the 7% growth rate across all industries.

The biggest gap isn’t in the raw numbers, though.

The biggest gap is in the hiring process.

Public and private organizations are struggling to not only hire and assess talent, but also to retain these highly skilled professionals that are vital to their company’s operations.

On the other side, even with the right certifications in-hand, newly graduated cybersecurity students lack the hands-on experience required to be able to fill these positions.

The Opportunity

But where others see problems, we here at RESET see opportunities.

In studying this major market challenge and serious security predicament, we learned about cyber ranges — and we were inspired.

A cyber range is a virtual environment disconnected from the internet that enables companies and organizations to train and test for cyberwarfare. It’s a test bed where security experts can test hardware, software and networks for security vulnerabilities.

As we spoke with more companies in need of cybersecurity talent, and more universities producing that talent, we started making connections.

What if we could set up a cyber range ecosystem that enabled graduates to get hands-on experience, and enabled public and private organizations to access talent?

What if, in partnership with local universities, we could help bridge the cybersecurity hiring gap?

The Solution

Today we’re proud to announce a new initiative here at RESET that we’re calling Cyber Range Concierge.

Our goal is to facilitate the interaction between academia and public and private organizations to create an environment of collaborative work — an environment where professionals, students and professors can work together on research opportunities, and really become proactive in addressing cybersecurity.

In addition, based on our research, we believe we need to be highly focused on IoT (the Internet of Things, aka smart devices) in our cyber range ecosystem. It’s estimated that by 2020 there will be more than 21 billion devices connected to the internet. With the increase in connected devices, there is an increase in opportunities for hackers to find vulnerabilities. In 2017 alone there was a 27.4% increase in cybercrime — and that number is only going to go up with the expanded surface area for cyberattack.

The Bottom Line

Cybersecurity is a growing challenge here in the U.S. and across the globe. We here at RESET want to be part of the solution — and we believe that connecting the right talent with the right companies is the best way we can do that.