CYBER.ORG Partners with National Cyber Scholarship Foundation to Empower K-12 Educators and Students with Increased Access to Cyber Resources

CISA-funded workforce development program further expands gamified learning program CyberStart America nationwide to address the cyber skills shortage and cybersecurity workforce gap.

CYBER.ORG – a workforce development organization funded through the Cybersecurity Education and Training Assistance Program (CETAP) grant from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – today announced its partnership with the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation (NCSF) to further expand the NCSF’s gamified learning program, CyberStart America, through the CYBER.ORG Range, a no-cost, safe, virtual setting where students can practice cybersecurity skills.

CyberStart America is a free national program for high school students to explore their cybersecurity skills and access educational resources developed by cybersecurity professionals. To help eliminate the cybersecurity workforce gap in the U.S., CyberStart America is designed as a gateway into the cybersecurity industry. The platform offers real-world challenges for students to complete over the course of the school year and high achievers can qualify for professional training scholarships. Starting this school year, CyberStart America is now accessible through the CYBER.ORG Range, removing barriers that limited the ability for educators and students to run the program.

“This partnership illustrates why we are prioritizing collaborations with innovative organizations pioneering tools that lower access barriers to the industry,” said Laurie Salvail, executive director of CYBER.ORG. “By providing joint access to CyberStart America and the CYBER.ORG Range, we are eager to increase access to new, innovative resources among students, teachers and schools while closing the existing cyber talent gap.”

Currently active in 50 states, the CYBER.ORG Range uses a cloud-based environment capable of running virtual machines with access to the internet but closed off from any private networks. By launching the virtual machines provided by the Range in a web browser, students don’t need any additional hardware or software to practice cybersecurity concepts.

“Collaboration is instrumental to solving the cybersecurity skills shortage and we’re proud to partner with CYBER.ORG to be part of the solution,” said Jennifer Esposito, Head of Operations at the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation. “In 2022, we had over 40,000 students nationwide participate in CyberStart America. By offering the CYBER.ORG Range in conjunction with CyberStart, educators have more of the resources they need to ensure that all students – regardless of socioeconomic background or previous cybersecurity experience – can develop the skills and confidence to pursue cyber careers in greater numbers.”

To sign up or learn more about CyberStart America, visit www.cyberstartamerica.org. For more info on the CYBER.ORG Range and how to partner with CYBER.ORG to expand access to cybersecurity careers, visit www.cyber.org.

About CYBER.ORG

CYBER.ORG is a cybersecurity workforce development organization that targets K-12 students with cyber career awareness, curricular resources, and teacher professional development. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) supports CYBER.ORG through a grant from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to develop and distribute cybersecurity education content to educators across the country at no cost. Currently, more than 30,000 teachers across all 50 states and four U.S. territories are enrolled in the CYBER.ORG content platform. For more information, please visit http://www.cyber.org.

About the National Cyber Scholarship Foundation

The National Cyber Scholarship Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation created to help the United States close its critical cybersecurity skills gap. The only known defense against sophisticated cyberattacks is cybersecurity professionals with extraordinary talent and advanced training that enables them to defend systems in real-time against determined adversaries. Other nations have a huge head start in developing people with those skills. The National Cyber Scholarship program and CyberStart America are designed to enable the United States to catch up quickly. For more information, please visit http://nationalcyberscholarship.org.

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