Through their past military service, veterans are trained to think like adversaries, often share that mission-driven spirit and excel when working with a team to achieve a larger goal. They develop and champion the unique traits that cybersecurity companies need in prospective talent.
These organizations must take note, as tapping veterans for cybersecurity roles can mutually benefit their business and the individuals they hire. Below, I’ll explain four reasons veterans make excellent cybersecurity company employees.
Fighting apex attackers
Through their military experience, veterans learn to combat the most sophisticated adversaries in existence and adopt an apex attacker’s perspective. Many of today’s malicious actors are not lone individuals wearing a hoodie and operating from a cybercafe; they’re highly skilled, well-funded nation-state actors or part of a larger cybercrime group that operates like a corporate organization.
Dealing with such high-level adversaries requires defenders who are trained specifically to combat their techniques. Many veterans are trained extensively in red team attack simulations, in which they pose as an attacker and attempt to breach an organization’s systems to assess vulnerabilities and boost the organization’s security posture. This training is used to combat nation-state attackers, with military members engaging in monthly or multi-year attack simulations.
Beyond the Department of Defense, there aren’t many places where security professionals can be trained to simulate such an attack or detect that high level of adversary. The average business or university course on cybersecurity doesn’t offer such training.
Constant security exercise
Many commercial organizations have large incident response teams, but they’re unable to regularly engage in exercises to deal with a security breach. Their day-to-day responsibilities don’t allow the level of training and simulation that’s needed, presenting a challenge when an actual security event occurs.
In the military, teams constantly do these exercises because their job essentially boils down to engaging in training or combat. When training, military members constantly simulate real-world combat situations so that, when the attack is real, they already know how they’ll react.
This constant training is another reason why veterans thrive in cybersecurity roles. Veterans are always oriented against the threat they face, and cybersecurity, like a combat situation, is one of the only fields that poses a constant quasi-state of attack.
Maintaining security requires a distinct mentality where your approach meets the dedication of the threat actor trying to hack into your system. Veterans can become skilled in specialized areas like hunting for advanced adversaries within security systems. They know that adversaries can be relentless in their attempts and can be adept in providing relentless defense.
Mission-focused amid uncertainty
In every area of the military, soldiers are thrown into uncertain situations and have no idea how they’re going to get through these instances. They operate under the general guidance that they must “adapt and overcome” to accomplish the mission, as the number one job of all military members is to execute the objective.
As a result, veterans learn to operate well in uncertain conditions by growing accustomed to new environments, adapting quickly to determine the path to success, and executing. These are invaluable traits when working in cybersecurity and fast-paced startup environments, where uncertain situations arise frequently.
Veterans can instinctively troubleshoot, determine the cause of a problem and map out a plan for resolution. Their experience makes them naturally proactive and driven to solve problems without excessive supervision or direction.
Always in the fight
Cybersecurity shares a similar mission with most military branches, which many veterans recognize. They want to stop the bad guys, serve the public good and make the world a safer place. To be effective in combatting cyberthreats, defenders must believe in what they’re doing, just as soldiers must when executing their mission.
Cybersecurity is one of the few avenues that can provide veterans with a greater sense of purpose that’s similar to what their military experience offered.
Many cybersecurity professionals fight for more than just a paycheck; they’re protecting people with very real-world, human outcomes. Cybersecurity organizations that recognize the wealth of talent and shared ideals that veterans can bring will only strengthen their company by adding them to their workforce.
For veterans coming out of the military and looking to serve a cause, cybersecurity can offer this opportunity. It can present a career path that allows veterans to directly apply their unique skill set in a productive and meaningful way that benefits them, their organization and the greater community.
