The most promising cybersecurity innovations are increasingly being developed by former incident responders, red teamers, SOC leads, and threat analysts, but there’s a lack of them, according to a HackerNoon blog post.
Cybersecurity Ventures projects that the global cybersecurity talent gap will exceed 3.5 million unfilled roles in 2025.
Some organizations are now explicitly funding innovation at the intersection of talent and technology. One example is EC-Council’s $100 million cybersecurity innovation initiative, announced in April of this year. While best known for its Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credential, EC-Council is taking a less conventional route by funding early-stage cybersecurity ventures founded by skilled practitioners.
Other programs are targeting talent even earlier in the pipeline. The SANS Institute’s CyberStart initiative focuses on discovering and training cybersecurity talent in high school and college, prioritizing practical problem-solving over academic theory. These programs are helping to close the experience gap that often separates classroom learning from operational readiness.
This shift may be exactly what the field needs not just to catch up with adversaries, but to stay ahead of them.