NOMINATION HIGHLIGHTS

The threat landscape is ever evolving, with new threats, innovations and evasion tactics that even highly skilled and well-resourced cybersecurity professionals may not spot if their skills aren’t continually kept up to date.

ESCALATE is a gamified ecosystem of hands-on-keyboard challenges and human mentors that provide engaging, ongoing cybersecurity training. Challenges include malware reverse engineering, network security, disk and memory forensics, vulnerability research, offensive and defensive operations, and operational software development.

Broadening the Talent Pool: Knowing where to look for tech talent is tough, with opportunities for bias at every turn – college education/high school; technical degrees/non-technical; recruiting/hiring decisions influenced by gender, race, age – but leaving an open door for talent to walk through means anyone can come in. And the best part? Anyone will. Adversaries come in all shapes and sizes, from all disciplines and backgrounds, and so should our defenders. ESCALATE levels the playing field in ways in-person trainings simply can’t by providing:
• Talent Cultivation to reinforce the value of learning, and leverage issues as opportunities for real-world development
• Pre-hire Screening by allowing organizations to analyze skillsets pre-hire, preventing the inadvertent screen-out of top performers due to outdated metrics, and avoid unintended biases in the talent recruitment/hiring/advancement processes
• Talent Measurement Tools for members to understand their strengths and opportunities for growth, and to help managers in their decision-making process
• Talent Recruitment by hosting hackathons/CTF tournaments worldwide for high schools, colleges, and corporations – fun opportunities to demonstrate, challenge and grow technical skills
• Talent Retention by providing real-time access to master craftsmen where employees can collaborate, increasing employee engagement through points, leaderboards and achievements

The workforce of today can’t meet the security needs of tomorrow unless they’re better equipped. ESCALATE provides in-house talent with the upskilling they need to grow and advance, while letting organizations better secure themselves.