Immersive Labs uses cyber resilience to solve human security risk, raises $66M

Human risk is one of those security challenges that affects all organizations — from small businesses to the largest enterprises. The problem, as research shows, is that 82% of breaches involve the human element, meaning that enterprises need to have an answer to user errors if they want to protect their environments. 

The only way to address these risks is with consistent, scenario-based training. Training and cyberattack simulations have the potential to empower employees to embrace security-conscious behavior, while teaching security teams to remediate incidents in the shortest time possible.

Today, Immersive Labs announced it has raised $66 million in funding led by Ten Eleven Ventures for its Cyber Workforce Resilience platform, a solution designed to enable organizations to continually assess security awareness for employees, cybersecurity teams and executives with realistic simulations and security labs. 

Regular resilience-testing has the potential to highlight gaps in employee security knowledge and provide an opportunity to teach employees how they can better protect critical systems and data. 

Building cyber resilience among security teams 

The announcement comes as cyber resilience is becoming a bigger priority for organizations, not just at the security level, but also at the business level, with 41% of business executives reporting that cyber resilience is an established business priority. 

But how do you measure cyber resilience exactly? The answer is by testing your defenses and the ability of your employees and security team to prevent and respond to security incidents. 

“Attracting new investment during a difficult time overall for the tech sector underscores the incredible demand for Immersive Labs’ disruptive, people-centric approach to cybersecurity,” said James Hadley, CEO of Immersive Labs. 

“Proving cyber resilience has increasingly become a board and C-level consideration. Our customers rely on us because we offer a trusted and effective approach to upskilling and measuring team and individual cyberdefense capabilities,” Hadley said. 

Immersive Labs’ approach to security training emphasizes that of simulated cyberattacks with solutions like Cyber Team Sim, which enable users to practice offensive and defensive team scenarios focused on specific vulnerabilities and attacks. 

This means security teams can find ways to improve their ability to remediate cyberattacks and limit the overall impact of breaches. 

Cyber resilience and security awareness training 

In many ways, Immersive Labs’ Cyber Workforce Resilience solution is competing within the security awareness training market, which researchers estimate will grow from $1.9 billion in 2022 to $12 billion by 2027 as more organizations look to mitigate human risk. 

One provider also offering a platform-based approach to security training is Cyberbit, which offers users cyberlabs to learn new skills and identify gaps in their knowledge. 

Cyberbit also gives enterprises the option to run simulated attacks to stress-test SOC teams and obtain a readiness score to measure their level of resilience to threat actors. It most recently raised $70 million in funding in 2020. 

Another competitor is Pluralsight, a cybertraining provider that offers a library of courses and skill assessments. Courses include securing applications in Microsoft Azure, AWS cloud security, secure coding, and cloud security best practices. Vista Equity Partners acquired Pluralsight for $3.5 billion in 2020. 

Immersive Labs’ emphasis on cyber resilience and simulating cyberattacks differentiates it from other providers, providing feedback on how effective a security team is at stopping security incidents in the shortest time possible.