Galina Antova appointed to Cloud Range board, with a focus on bridging skills gap, boosting cyber defenses

Galina Antova appointed to Cloud Range board, with a focus on bridging skills gap, boosting cyber defenses

(Article has been updated to include Galina Antova’s quotes)

Cyber range solutions vendor Cloud Range appoints Galina Antova to its board of directors to support the company’s focus on bridging cyber skills gap, strengthening cyber defenses, and protecting the front lines. Antova defined her goal with Cloud Range as helping the company develop innovative solutions that ease the burden of incident responders and cyber professionals on the front lines, enhance their efficiency, and empower them with the knowledge they need to overcome any challenges they may encounter while responding to incidents.

As co-founder and chief business development officer of industrial cybersecurity company Claroty, Antova played an integral role in growing the organization from its conceptual stage to a unicorn with over US$100 million in sales. Antova will play a key role on the board of directors in helping advance Cloud Range through the next phase of company growth as it expands product offerings and capabilities to new and existing customers globally. Her experience in driving growth will help Cloud Range continue to reach new audiences, guide new product development, and leverage new sales. 

Passionate about furthering women in technology, Antova is a founding member of Firstboard.io, a curated group of accomplished female executives in technology working together to increase the representation of women on boards and at the highest level of corporate governance and management. She also served as Program Chair for the Seed-to-A Program at All Raise, a program dedicated to guiding and supporting women entrepreneurs through all stages of funding and growth.

Addressing the current representation of women in the industrial cybersecurity sector, and common obstacles that prevent women from joining the cybersecurity industry, Debbie Gordon, CEO and founder of Cloud Range told Industrial Cyber that surveys show that women hold 25 percent of cybersecurity jobs globally as of 2022. “This goes beyond securing corporate networks and includes IoT, IIoT, and ICS security. While the situation is improving, it is not enough.” 

Gordon added that one of the biggest obstacles that prevent women from joining the cybersecurity industry is simply a lack of awareness and that it has stereotypically been seen as being represented by men. “It is up to today’s cyber security women leaders to be role models and show the next generation the way, that it is an attractive career path, and that there’s nothing stopping us from being in cybersecurity,” she highlights.

“Industrial cybersecurity requires a unique set of skills – both cybersecurity as well as understanding of Industrial Control Systems and industrial engineering, both domains with traditionally low representation of women,” Antova told Industrial Cyber. “At the same time, this subset of cybersecurity is at all time high demand due to the digital transformation projects that organizations are going through. In recent years, we’ve seen encouraging increase in women in cyber overall  and now given the demand for OT/IoT cyber we expect to see more women in this category as well. 

She added that with the explosive growth and inter connectivity and cyber-physical systems, comes an opportunity for women trained in cyber to expand their training to industrial cyber. “Also, it’s encouraging to see new university programs that offer programs in that domain.”

Providing more detail on the agenda that has been laid down to help propel the company to the next level, including any particular measures being planned to advance the role of women in OT and industrial cybersecurity, Gordon said that Cloud Range is driving the cyber range-as-a-service market category to transform the way organizations are continuously training, retaining, and maintaining their cyber talent, strengthening their operations, and becoming more resilient. 

“This expansion includes the use of new technologies, such as AI; expansion into new markets, such as industrial/critical infrastructure and government organizations who are the targets of many of today’s attacks; and strategic regions such as EMEA,” according to Gordon. “Our plan to advance the women in OT cybersecurity is to be strong role models to prospective cyber practitioners and to help level the playing field using Cloud Range’s simulation-based candidate assessments.”

Addressing the initiatives that have emerged to attract and support women in the OT and industrial cybersecurity, in addition to the benefits of bringing about a gender-diverse cybersecurity workforce to organizations, Antova said that “the domain of industrial cyber has developed extremely fast in the last few years: we went from almost no cyber tools deployed to a variety of domain specific solutions and expanding governance programs to cover OT.” 

“The pace of change allows for fast learners to get into this domain,” according to Antova. “The diversity of thought brings about competitive advantages as every organization is essentially becoming a technology company, and digital transformation and cybersecurity are seen as competitive advantages.” 

In recent years, Antova pointed out that “we have seen many programs, both non-profits as well as within companies, that focus on growing talent in cyber and training candidates without prior formal cyber training, and that has expanded the talent pool quite a lot and we’re seeing some benefits. With advances in AI and cyber range training platforms like Cloud Range, I believe this trend will accelerate, which is why I am super excited to be part of this change and advancement of our industry,” she added.

Gordon outlined that women leaders tend to participate in opportunities that provide mentorship, particularly other women, providing them with the support and guidance needed to help them advance in their careers. “Any diversity of thought will help propel organizations and be more adaptable to the evolving threat and technology landscape. How problems are solved and how opportunities are discovered all vary with diversity of thought,” she added.

“It is a privilege to join Cloud Range’s talented woman-led team who has such a powerful vision to continue to build and lead the cyber range-as-a-service category. Cloud Range is transforming the way organizations are training, retaining, and maintaining all levels of cyber talent, strengthening their operations, and becoming more resilient,” Antova said in a press note. “Cybersecurity professionals, especially those on the front lines of defense, face one of the most stressful jobs in existence today, leading to high burnout. In addition, few companies focus on continued training in the space.”

In its 2022 Cybersecurity Year in Review, the National Security Agency (NSA) highlighted the agency’s ability to scale cybersecurity solutions through strong partnerships, driving cybersecurity outcomes, and pushing strong partnerships and education. Additionally, the NSA remains committed to ensuring all people see themselves in cyber and to fostering a diverse workforce that is reflective of the global community. The agency is actively working with academic, industry, and government partners to encourage more women to pursue careers in cybersecurity.

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