Synack launches paid mentorship program to boost skills, increase diversity in cybersecurity

The first-of-its-kind initiative in collaboration with Hack The Box is designed for members of the elite Synack Red Team community to encourage more training and opportunities for advancement in cybersecurity.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Synack, the premier on-demand security platform for continuous penetration testing and vulnerability management, today is launching an innovative paid mentorship program for members of its Synack Red Team, the world's most-trusted community of security researchers.

The SRT Mentorship Program will reward researchers for the time and effort they put into teaching others within this community to develop new tactics and techniques so they will ultimately be more successful researchers.

Synack relies on the SRT community to provide the most rigorous on-demand security testing for customers located around the world that include Fortune 500 corporations, global financial institutions, government agencies and leading healthcare organizations.

"We want to bolster knowledge sharing and collaboration at scale in the researcher community," said Ryan Rutan, Senior Director of Community for the SRT. "This is an effort to encourage more mentorship within our community, help less experienced researchers gain the skills they need to earn more money and help all researchers develop more unique and valuable skill sets."

The program will encourage all SRT researchers to make themselves available for mentorship and pay for their time teaching others on the platform. Synack will partner with Hack The Box, an online cybersecurity training platform, to extend additional training opportunities to the community and inject new skills into the SRT mentorship pipeline.

Every month, select SRT mentees and mentors throughout the community earn access to in-depth Hack The Box training to improve their skills for personal profit and open doors for future mentorship roles.  

 "We are excited to be working closely with the Synack team to encourage members of the community to expand their cybersecurity skills utilizing our Pro Labs and BlackSky Cloud Labs," said Sotiria Giannitsari (aka r0adrunn3r), Senior Manager of Community for Hack The Box. "These products are the definition of real world attacks, state of the art infrastructure and must have techniques that all practitioners should know. Through this partnership, our training is accessible to all cybersecurity professionals, allowing them to land their dream job and succeed in any engagement."

The SRT Mentorship Program started as a pilot project in late 2021 to formalize efforts to help SRT train and educate each other on the platform. The pilot was wildly successful and served as a testament to the collaborative nature of the SRT community.

"We have the best community of security researchers in the world," said Jay Kaplan, Synack's CEO and cofounder. "The SRT Mentorship Program is a way of formalizing the collaboration and mentoring that's already going on within the platform, and to inspire even more coaching and learning. The SRT's dedication to improving their skills means we're always advancing our ability to protect customers."

In July, the SRT will anoint its first Mentor of the Year on the Synack Acropolis, the SRT recognition program for the community's top performing researchers.

To learn more about becoming a member of the Synack Red team, please visit https://synack.com/red-team/

Synack's premier on-demand security testing platform harnesses a talented, vetted community of security researchers and smart technology to deliver continuous penetration testing and vulnerability management, with actionable results. We are committed to making the world more secure by closing the cybersecurity skills gap, giving organizations on-demand access to the most-trusted security researchers in the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with regional teams around the world, Synack protects global banks, federal agencies, DoD classified assets and more than $6 trillion in Fortune 500 and Global 2000 revenue. For more information, please visit www.synack.com.

Hack The Box is the online cybersecurity training and upskilling platform that allows individuals, businesses, universities, and all kinds of organizations all around the world to level up their offensive and defensive security skills through the most gamified and engaging learning environment. Join a massive hacking playground and infosec community of over 1 million platform members who learn, hack, level up, and exchange ideas and methodologies.  For more information, please visit www.hackthebox.com.

SOURCE Synack