Ohio boot camp touts Israeli cybersecurity experts to draw students

Capitalizing on the increasing global demand for Israeli cybersecurity expertise, Ohio-based coding boot camp The Software Guild has announced a partnership with Israeli cybersecurity academy HackerUSA.

HackerUSA is the US subsidiary of Israeli private cyber training institute HackerU, founded in 1996 to focuses on cybersecurity training skills. Its website says that its instructors are veterans of elite IDF units, industry specialists and international information security experts. The center holds a variety of courses and provides a variety of security products.

The Software Guild is a recently founded “coding boot camp,” offering intensive courses boasting placement rates of as high as 95 percent and promising lucrative careers for its “apprentices.”

The partnership is set to launch a new online information protection course “supported by the same tools used by the Israeli military,” a Software Guild statement boasts.

“Our mission is to connect students of all backgrounds with accessible education while training them with the high-level skills employers are looking for,” said The Software Guild Founder and chief academic officer Eric Wise, speaking at a public event launching the program at company HQ in Akron, Ohio, earlier this month.

“In today’s global economy, that’s cybersecurity, as corporations, small organizations and government bodies face cyber threats every minute of every day,” he said.

The course’s online description invites prospective students to “Become a first-class cyber security risk manager within one of three main channels: analysis, assessment and mitigation.” The three learning tracks include a four-month intensive course that can translate into an IT expert certification for students in Python and Basic Cyber Security. The other two courses — Cyber Security Risk Management and Assessment and Professional Penetration Tester — are part-time for eight months.

International observers — including Forbes magazine — have identified Israel as a “powerhouse” in the cybersecurity field, leading an $82 billion global market.

HackerUSA CEO Ariel Cohen said the center hopes to help upgrade the level of cybersecurity in the US. There is a massive shortage — about a million — of trained cybersecurity officers around the world, he said, and much of that need is in the US, where the Pentagon sees 10 million daily attempts to cause damage or steal information.

“The next warzone is not in any land, it’s in cyberspace,” said Cohen.

Over the past year HackerU has developed partnerships with educational institutions around the US, including SUNY Polytechnic, Wagner College and the University of Miami. Through these partnerships Cohen said, HackerU hopes to bring the experience and expertise of IDF Units 81 and 8200 to the US.

“Because we are a very experienced country with cyberattacks, we want to bring that experience to the US so that they don’t have to learn the hard way,” said Cohen.

“Israel is at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry, so it only made sense to bring in HackerUSA, Israel’s cybersecurity elite, to round out our offering,” said Wise.