Tech experts and former military intelligence officers share insights into the valuable skills that veterans can bring to the cybersecurity industry.
Bryon Kroger, Founder of Rise8
Number of data records compromised by cyberattacks since the onset of a global pandemic more than twice Increased from about 15,432 cases in 2019 to over 37,000 cases in 2020 compared to the previous year Colonial pipeline attack Ransomware and CISA Director Jen Easterly pointed out a major flaw It’s in Apache’s Log4j logging library, which has potentially made hundreds of millions of user devices vulnerable.
Unfortunately, as the real and current threats of additional attacks and vulnerabilities continue to grow, and the technologies used to successfully attack and breach data become more sophisticated, the cybersecurity industry remains severely understaffed. According to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, there are nearly 3 million qualified cybersecurity workers worldwide.
Due to the huge shortage of manpower, cybersecurity leaders and professionals are not only in high demand from applicants, but are forced to hire a section of the US workforce, many of which are already cybersecurity certified or qualified veterans. This article lists the top 10 reasons and explains why businesses should hire veterans to address the critical gaps in workforce and cybersecurity defenses.
- Veterans are used to the responsibilities of leadership.
Whether it’s the first week of boot camp, the first night of a field operation, or a lesson learned the morning before a briefing, military service trains veterans from day one to understand the importance of leadership. In the realm of cybersecurity, it is the quality of a leader that determines a company’s ability to respond to and respond to potential threats (or presentations) in a timely manner. Strong leadership in the military can make the difference between life and death. For a cybersecurity company, hiring a veteran with leadership experience can mean the difference between overcoming and blocking a distinct threat or allowing a threat to compromise your (or customers’) personal data.
- Most veterinarians are comfortable in a rapidly changing environment.
If there is one word to sum up an active-duty lifestyle, it’s “robbery.” During military service, veterans learn to adapt and become familiar with an ever-changing and rapidly changing environment. Often, civilian risk factors are provided as collateral in some form. A high-risk game in cyber defense turns into one of the veterans protecting themselves, their teams and civilians from malicious digital attacks. So veterans can already place themselves in the mindset of being a prime candidate for the cyber defense industry. Veterans may also be more adept at navigating their comrades through potential cyber crises, and may be victorious once the threat is addressed and negated.
- Veterans value and respect constructive feedback.
In many field operations during active duty, one of the luxuries many veterans don’t find is the ability to try again if the operation fails. But trial and error is the foundation of cyber defense. Learning what threats are and how to best evaluate and address them is at the heart of cybersecurity. Knowing this, many veterans of the cyber defense industry will find mentors and/or leaders who provide constructive feedback and critique of performance, and will inspire them to do better on the next unavoidable threat, regardless of when and where it occurred.
- Teamwork and individual responsibility are at the heart of military training.
The ability to get things done, regardless of work, whether individually or as part of a team, is a mindset that almost all veterans have been trained to do. As a result, veterans inherently have a greater sense of personal responsibility and achievement for mission success. Being able to act as an individual expert who is part of a team equipped to deal with external threats is central to military and cyber defense training as each individual is accountable for specific success metrics. When a cyber defense company is faced with a crisis, veterans are one of the best employees for the company to navigate the complexities of that situation.
- Veterans aim to deliver meaningful results.
A willingness to get the job done no matter what, along with teamwork and leadership, helps veterans deliver the impactful outcomes of the services they provide to others. In the realm of cybersecurity and cyber defense, these findings can mean the difference between a company’s lifespan and continued success or failure when faced with significant digital threats. Industry veterans will have a clear understanding of how their performance directly affects their team, leaders, and those around them, as well as external individuals who have a stake in the success of their mission. Having this results-oriented mindset helps make veterans a valuable employee for cyber defense companies that hire them.
- Veterinarians do their job.
It helps to instill a sense of purpose in active-duty veterans whenever they are instructed about what their mission means in the bigger picture. For veterans in the field of cyber defense and cyber security, these objectives derive from the added layer of digital protection that their work and expertise provide to others. When cyber defense veterans understand that their purpose is to maintain the integrity of their personal data and information, they are committed to maintaining that purpose and providing the companies and customers that employ it an additional means of protecting their data. Value for the entire cyber defense industry
- Reliability is important in both military and cybersecurity services.
Veterans learn to understand that no matter how important an individual or service is, they are only valuable as much as they can be trusted. including yourself. For example, when the core skills that veterans rely on to perform their day-to-day tasks become unreliable or new/better technologies emerge, veterans learn to find the credibility and value that those skills can bring to service. . Likewise, reliability is critical to the continued success of companies in the cyber defense industry, as services depend on their ability to secure and strengthen defenses of vulnerable users and data.
- Veterinarians understand the emphasis on structure and clarity.
Without a clearly defined structure, no organization can achieve or sustain success in the long term. Rescue, however, is one of the key components that military service helps to instill in veterans, and many veterans find these structures in the private sector after formal military service. As such, many veterans will find themselves thriving in the role of cyber defense companies that provide clarity of purpose within their organizations and a similar sense of structure. These findings allow veterans to essentially rely on military training to continue providing value to the companies they work for.
- Veterinarians focus on the impact of driving meaningful change.
If you ask why you decided to join the military in the first place in a room full of veterans, most of the answers you get will correspond to your desire to be a part of meaningful and positive change in the world. That meaningful change is what the cybersecurity industry is trying to provide to its customers in the face of an ever-growing and ever-changing digital environment. When transitioning to a cyber defense role, veterans can provide positive services to protect everyday people, with a focus on driving an impactful shift from the private sector to meaningful work, based on their military training and background.
- Veterans learn to deal with threats and take risks.
Basically, military service teaches veterans how to respond to and respond to virtually any threat. In the realm of cyber defense, these threats are as numerous as their potential strength. Veterans also understand the need to take risks to respond to threats in a timely and responsible manner. This is another common shared in cybersecurity. Veterans looking to transition their skills into the private cyber defense sector already have this mindset, so it’s valuable to companies that can hire them. They know the importance of their skills and their purpose in protecting others. Veterans are inherently trained in how to respond to and overcome threats, even in high-risk situations, making them a valuable candidate pool for the larger cybersecurity industry.
About the author
Bryon Kroger is the founder of Rise8, which puts military bureaucracy and Silicon Valley innovation in the same realm. Kroger, a veteran of the US Air Force and co-founder of Kessel Run, the Pentagon’s first software factory, is bridging the gap between govtech’s outdated practices and the pace known as Silicon Valley startups. Bryon can be contacted online at bryon@rise8.com and on our website. https://rise8.us/.
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