Goldman Sachs has led an $8 million investment round in Immersive Labs, a British cyber skills startup created by a former GHQ staffer.
The Immersive Labs platform uses real-time feeds of the latest attack techniques, hacker psychology and technological vulnerabilities to build cyber wargames for IT and security teams to learn from.
Goldman's investment comes just six months after the Wall Street firm announced plans to use the platform to upskill its workforce across the globe.
Andy Ozment, chief information security Officer at Goldman Sachs, says: “Having rolled out the Immersive Lab platform globally ourselves, we are aware of the benefits it brings to large organisations. Continuous training programmes are critical to meeting evolving cyber security threats. The Immersive platform has helped us hone the skills of the people at the front line of our cyber defences and identify new talent throughout the organisation.”
The company was founded by ex-GCHQ researcher James Hadley and is chaired by former GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan. Other big corporates on the client list include BAE Systems, Sophos and Grant Thornton.
Says Hadley: “Large organisations are facing a dual cyber security talent problem; not only is the number of professionals seriously lagging but so is the pace at which their skills are developed. If you are able to recruit the right people in the first place, today’s attackers move so fast your team may quickly fall behind. Our goal is to reduce this gap."