CyberSN Expands in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Regions
November 25, 2020 – Increasingly, organizations of all sizes are awakening to the perils posed by cyber attacks. For years, many groups tried to ignore the problem, dismissing cybersecurity as a concern only for the biggest, most high-profile entities, be they government or corporate. These days, more groups are coming to understand how ruinous such intrusions could be. This has led to a dramatic rise in the demand for cybersecurity executives and search firms in this sector continuing to grow.
Recently, CyberSN, a boutique search firm serving talent needs in cybersecurity, expanded in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions with the additions of Matt Donato as managing director, Southern region, and Drew Crisan as cybersecurity recruiting manager for the East and South regions. “We are seeing an increased demand for our services, especially our resume service, called Talent Scout, where we do half the work and our clients do half, for half the price,” said Deidre Diamond, founder and CEO of CyberSN and founder of Security Diversity. “This expansion with strong leaders like Matt and Drew means we can better service this region.”
Mr. Donato is responsible for all CyberSN’s activity from Washington, D.C. to Florida. Prior to the firm, he was one of the founders of a Charlotte, NC-based cybersecurity recruiting firm HuntSource. Earlier in his career, Mr. Donato was vice president of business development at AccruePartners.
“I am so excited to join the CyberSN family and combine my love of cybersecurity with the incredible resources at CyberSN,” said Mr. Donato. “I am looking forward to expanding the CyberSN brand in this region.”
Mr. Crisan joins CyberSN from Carolina Tractor and Equipment Company, where he was a talent acquisition partner. Before that, he was a recruiting manager with AccruePartners.
Expanding Region
North Carolina is a growing market with a 128 percent growth in tech job postings in 2019 and a projected need for 3,960 additional information security analysts by 2024. These jobs are increasingly open to out-of-area candidates, which will allow local companies to leverage the CyberSN national network of job seekers. According to NCTECH’s jobs summary, the Charlotte region added 39,413 tech jobs last year, “which was instrumental in CyberSNs’ decision to add resources to this region,” said Ms. Diamond. “We are doubling down nationally in all markets. Our resume service, launched earlier this year, has proven to be very desirable. With more leadership hands on the wheel, we can service much more of the community we love.”
CyberSN was founded in 2014 to address the challenges of job searching and hiring in the cybersecurity profession. Not long after, Ms. Diamond founded the non-profit organization Secure Diversity, to address the gender gap in the industry. Together, CyberSN and Secure Diversity have created a number of events and programs to bring new people into the infosec profession and reshape the idea of what it takes to be a cybersecurity practitioner.
Security Threats Create Talent Challenges, Opportunities
Cybersecurity might well be the greatest challenge facing corporate America today. The threat to reputation, private information and dollars — both from immediate theft and the cost of repairing the damage of a cyber-attack — can be staggering.
In July, CyberSN and CyberForward by CISOSHARE formed a partnership to provide trained cyber talent with work experience at affordable rates. “Developing the skills needed to be valuable on a cybersecurity team takes hands on experience and time,” said Ms. Diamond. “Most cybersecurity teams don’t have the budgets to hire junior talent and thus their senior talent leaves from burnout. By partnering with CyberForward, CyberSN is able to offer our clients experienced junior talent at affordable rates.”
CyberForward has created a program that takes underrepresented individuals to provide them with both practical and on-the-job-training for six months while CyberSN can offer their services full time to organizations looking to build a pipeline of qualified talent. “Hiring cyber talent in an environment where high turnover is common starts with retention,” the companies said. “Cyber professionals are looking for opportunities for growth, which means having junior resources to provide coverage and relieve burnout that could overwhelm senior professionals.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
