By Sebakungu Tuyisenge
The FBI reports that since the start of the coronavirus, cyberattacks have increased by 300%. Google’s data complements this finding; the company blocked over 18 million coronavirus phishing attempts each day at the start of the pandemic. Cybercrime is a dangerous threat to people’s lives and every organization around the world. This is the main reason why Roy Zur established Cybint, a company that initially started by providing cybersecurity training services based on military expertise, and later became a leading company for reskilling and upskilling the workforce in cybersecurity.
When I asked Roy about his career journey, he said: “My career journey started when I was in a mandatory military position in Israel. On the one hand, it is challenging. But on the other hand, it provides opportunities for people. When we are 18, we get a chance to enroll in different positions. I was lucky to get a role in the Israeli cyber unit, which is called unit 8200. I started there as a young soldier and I moved up in different positions until I received my rank of a major.”
This experience provided Roy with enough cyber skills to transform the cybersecurity community and organizations around the world. His first step toward impacting the community and organizations started in Israel.
“In general, often when you start a startup or a company, it's really important to start close to home and solve problems that you see with your own eyes or experience directly,” he said.
He initially concentrated on working with companies, educational institutions and government agencies that needed training and support around cyber skills. From there, his business evolved.
“While I had cyber skills, I noticed that providing services is not scalable,” he explained. “You can’t really grow by just providing services with one person, so I then hired more people. Then I needed to develop products such as the Bootcamp and other solutions so that the knowledge and skills can spread around the world.”
Cybint started in 2017. In a short period of time, it has impacted thousands of people around the world. Cybint offers a skills-based platform that provides learning training and simulations for multiple learning paths. The content is updated constantly depending on emerging threats and technologies.
“We have trained about 10,000 people from the industry with just one of our partners in Singapore,” he said. “We have a few dozens of partnerships around the world with our bootcamps. And every one of these partnerships is training many people per year.”
Cybint, with already over 50 employees listed on its website, plays a very big role in reskilling the workforce and upskilling the industry in cybersecurity.
"The biggest challenge in cybersecurity is the human factor,” he said. “People are being targeted by hackers and are being exploited as the weakest link in their organizations because they are vulnerable to social engineering, phishing and other types of attacks. There are so many available tools out there for attacks, deception and fraud than there are people. So even people with no significant hacking skills can utilize technology and tools against other people and organizations.”
Success tips
During the interview, I was inspired by how Cybint is impacting hundreds of thousands of people by reskilling the workforce and upskilling the industry in cybersecurity. I look forward to working in this field. Here are some tips Roy shared with me:
Have the right mindset. You need to put yourself in the mind of the hacker. “You need to understand how an attack is being conducted and what are the interests and motivations behind the attack,” he said. “Once you understand this and you have the right mindset, then you can develop the related technical skills to succeed in cybersecurity.”
Use analytical thinking and an investigative approach. “You need to be curious about things and you need to try to get to the bottom of it,” he explained. “It will put you on the right path to succeed.”
Key Takeaways
After graduating from a Cybersecurity Bootcamp accredited by Cybint, I found cybersecurity as an interesting field. But I had a fixed mindset that the field was meant for geniuses with a strong education background, especially in the IT field. However, I was excited to learn from Roy that cybersecurity is for anyone as long as you have the right mindset, interest and willingness to learn and acquire the right skills.
It was fascinating to hear Roy’s perspectives on the human component of cybersecurity. It involves many skills that are not purely technical. Furthermore, it was interesting to hear how actual hands-on skills are more important for cybersecurity rather than a specific degree. People with different backgrounds can find their path in cybersecurity.
I want to try developing these hands-on skills by regularly practicing on the Cybint Solutions’ learning platform labs, taking online courses and attending webinars that focus on technical concepts in cybersecurity and solving real-life scenarios.
The statistics I shared at the outset of the article will probably only grow in the future. I want to be part of addressing this challenge that impacts so many people around the world.
Learn more about Roy Zur, Founder & CEO of Cybint at his LinkedIn Profile. You can also visit Cybint website for Cybersecurity education and training solutions, cyber-crime and cyber-attack updates.
Sebakungu Tuyisenge is a graduate at Southern New Hampshire University, Global Education Movement, based in Rwanda, and he is also a Cybersecurity Specialist. You can connect with him via LinkedIn. Sebakungu wrote the story after going through the Global Innovators Academy Interview an Innovator experience.
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