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Finding qualified cybersecurity professionals is something that many organizations struggle to do. According to (ISC)2 the cybersecurity workforce fell 2.72 million positions short in 2021, meaning that the global cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 65% to fill all vacant roles. 

Unfortunately, as long as these positions go unfilled, organizations simply won’t have the expertise needed to stave off the next generation of online threats. 

To address the shortage, cybersecurity skills training provider ThriveDX today announced the launch of its Cyber Talent Hub, designed to unite educators and employers across commercial and government organizations to help organizations attract, retain and develop cyber talent more efficiently.

Through the hub, organizations will be able to access a talent pool of qualified and diverse candidates and aspiring security professionals from major universities across the country. It’s a system that will enable enterprises to quickly find qualified candidates for entry-level positions. 

At launch, industry and education partners supporting the initiative include Carahsoft, Exclusive Networks, Ingram Micro Inc, Jacobs, Kyndryl, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Mandiant, Marsh, New York University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin. 

Filling the cyberskills gap 

One of the main issues caused by the cyberskills gap is that many organizations lack the expertise they need to secure their environments against threat actors. In fact, research suggests that the cybersecurity skills gap contributes to 80% of breaches. 

The simple reality is that if an organization can’t hire a specialist to identify gaps in their defenses, then those vulnerabilities are wide open to exploitation by threat actors as part of ransomware attacks and other coordinated assaults.

At the same time, it’s important to recognise that traditional approaches to hiring talent aren’t fit for purpose. Organizations need to build new talent acquisition and development functions based on digital skills training if they want to optimize their ability to acquire candidates. ThriveDX’s Cyber Talent Hub provides one avenue to do this. 

“The Cybersecurity Talent Hub (CTH) will create a single ecosystem designed to attract, foster, and continuously improve and grow cybersecurity talent. This concept leverages existing technology and services provided by ThriveDX to create a virtual ecosystem that provides efficient matching between, and incentives to, participating students, educators and employers,” said founder and co-CEO of ThriveDX, Dan Vigdor. 

This approach means that organizations will have a new digital channel to recruit qualified cybersecurity professionals. 

“Through this Hub, we want to provide a sustainable pipeline of highly trained individuals interested in lucrative cybersecurity careers and then match them with employer partners looking to hire for open roles,” Vigdor said.

A look at the cyberskills market 

Since being founded in 2006 in Israel, ThriveDX is one of the most significant players in the digital skills training market, having raised $100 million in funding at the start of this year. The company offers a platform enterprises can use to deliver phishing and security awareness training to employees. 

One of ThriveDX’s main competitors is Coursera, which most recently raised $130 million as part of a series F funding round in 2020, while offering an online platform where users can complete over 5,000 courses and earn online degrees. 

Another competitor is 2U, which expects to generate revenue between $1.05 to $1.09 billion this year, and offers an online learning platform called edX, where users can complete courses, programs and degrees from some of the best universities in the world. The platform currently has over 3,000 courses and 485,279 users.  

As of today, the main differentiator between these competitors and ThriveDX, is not only does it offer a platform for cybersecurity education and talent creation, it now offers a Cyber Talent Hub for connecting enterprises with security experts.