British Army enhances human cyber capability with Bristol's Immersive Labs

Immersive Labs, the company enabling organisations to continuously measure and optimise the human cyber capabilities of their entire workforce, is working with the British Army to enhance the human cyber capabilities of military personnel. More than 100 000 people-strong, the Army is initially using Immersive Labs to provide a continuous cycle of human cyber capability development for Staff Officers, digital deliverers and technical specialists.

The platform is available to everyone in the Army – Regular, Reserve, and civilian – and uses online Lab environments and content experiences to continually improve cyber knowledge, skills, and judgement. By design, this development is structured to progress at each person’s pace, ability, and particular learning needs. The program starts with the fundamentals of cybersecurity and progresses to more advanced abilities, such as web application security and incident response, to correspond with an individual’s unique learning pathway.

By mapping a real-time view of the abilities of personnel against industry frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK, the British Army can identify where capabilities are required and inject targeted skills improvement. With a remit to ensure the Army remains protected in an ever-changing hybrid battlespace, this continuous development will also prevent skills decay over time, provide a greater coverage of the threat landscape and identify hidden talent to progress rapidly to expert roles.

Kristina Evans, Head of Cyber and Security at the Army, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for the British Army to raise the level of our people’s cyber skills across the board. Not only does it allow those with a grounding in technical capabilities to improve, but it also allows us to uncover a whole new class of cyber talent.”

“The threats we face change day by day and can come from any vector, for this reason, cyber security should not just be limited to backroom technical teams. The modern operating environment, at home and overseas, requires strength in depth, with people across the Army providing a defensive cyber capability, which the work with Immersive Labs fully supports.”

Being delivered through a browser, Army personnel can develop skills at their own pace and explore areas of cyber security that interest them most. Users simply login and progress through consecutive learning environments.

James Hadley, CEO of Immersive Labs said: “With the nature of modern warfare changing on a daily basis, the British Army needs to improve the cyber abilities of their personnel, with pace and scale. By joining forces with the British Army, our platform is playing a vital role in helping achieve this, pinpointing areas for improvement and enhancing the nation’s cyber defence capabilities as a whole.”