Circadence Corporation Provides Gamified Cyber Education with Project Ares

Promote this Nomination

Additional Info

Company (that provides the nominated product / solution / service)Circadence Corporation
Websitehttp://www.circadence.com
Company size (employees)100 to 499
Type of solutionCloud/SaaS

In 3 bullets, summarize why this product or service is different from the competition and deserves recognition:

Continuous Access to Cyber Training:
Running on Microsoft Azure, Project Ares allows cybersecurity professionals to access cyber training anytime, anywhere, on a browser which eliminates the need/cost for out of office travel to classroom programs. The first of its kind, the cloud-based training platform provides cyber professionals with a diverse and industry-relevant selection of learning opportunities to progress in cyber competency, advance in their career, and develop “future ready” skills. New learning curriculum specific to cyber job roles and industries can be easily accessed to keep cyber skills “fresh”. Simultaneously, security team leads and managers save money and time training professionals.

Scalability, Speed, Location:
The advanced performance capability of Project Ares on Microsoft Azure provides quick load times for cyber training content, allowing the user to access a rich catalog of learning games, battle rooms and missions in seconds. The gamified training platform scales to train thousands of concurrent users at one time and also has a broad geographical reach so trainees can log into Project Ares across the globe accessing training quickly and effectively.

Rich Content:
Project Ares has a series of learning games, battle rooms and missions based on specific job roles and learning objectives/frameworks. There are missions specific to various industries such as finance, election security, government and more. Each mission allows the user to gain advanced training in defending against real-world cyber-attacks. The hands-on training provides in-depth learning that gives users an advantage for job placement and career progression.

Brief Overview

Project Ares® is a gamified cybersecurity learning platform that takes training out of the classroom and into an immersive, interactive real-world environment.

The cyber learning curriculum in Project Ares is made up of 3 tiers of hands-on activities. Cyber games are arcade style games that use repetitive education techniques to teach users foundational concepts (e.g. the cyber kill chain used in incident detection/response or number system conversion used in digital forensics). In Battle Rooms, trainees use security tools to practice tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) in exercises that map to work roles found in the NIST/NICE framework. The platform’s persistent capability allows for constant practice of network defense, giving organizations a better understanding of cybersecurity workforce preparedness and gaps in skill, helping leaders effectively direct future training and address organizational vulnerabilities. Full-scale, high-fidelity cyber ranges deliver offensive and defensive mission scenarios. Security professionals who actively train in realistic network environments can build skills and gain experiences that they would on the job, allowing them to handle complex, evolving threats.

The artificial intelligent adviser, Athena, helps players understand concepts so they can be successful with mission tasks. Athena provides on-demand feedback to players, greatly reducing instructor workload with automated scoring.

The benefit of Project Ares is its active, applied learning capability. Research shows people retain only 10% of information after one week, while active learning retention reaches 75%. Active learning approach to skills development fills a “cyber readiness” gap in the market, providing proactive, on-demand, cloud-based training to professionals who want to train anytime, anywhere, without paying for costly courses. Running on Microsoft Azure, the platforms’ scalability promotes individual and team-based learning. The “learn by doing” approach improves learner information retention, which in the case of cyber training, can effectively harden an organization’s security posture.

Browse Award Nominations