Latest news with #ThanosKarpouzis
Business Wire
29-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Immersive and Endace Team Up to Deliver Hands-On, Data-Driven Cyber Training for SOC Teams
AUCKLAND, New Zealand & BRISTOL, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Endace, the authority in Packet capture, and Immersive, the leader in people-centric cybersecurity, today announced a technical partnership designed to strengthen cyber readiness and accelerate threat response. By combining Endace's forensic packet capture technology with Immersive's technical exercises and simulations, this collaboration empowers SOC teams to build critical skills, improve investigation speed, and reduce response times. Through this integration, organizations can upskill their security teams in a realistic, controlled environment using the same tools they rely on in live networks. Analysts gain hands-on experience using EndaceProbe for forensic packet analysis and deep network visibility, within minutes of entering a scenario in Immersive's platform, allowing them to practice detecting, analyzing, and responding to real-world threats—something that isn't possible with traditional legacy training. 'We're excited to collaborate with Immersive to improve cyber resilience. SOC teams learn rapidly when they can exercise with tools they use daily, against simulated threats that closely represent real-world attacks,' said Cary Wright, VP Product Management, Endace. 'With EndaceProbes integrated into the Immersive platform, teams can build skills in a safe environment and learn how to hunt for, and combat, even the most serious threats. When faced with a critical cyber situation, individuals can then act swiftly to understand and neutralize threats.' Key benefits of the Endace and Immersive partnership include: Build and strengthen cyber readiness with live attack simulations that include packet forensics investigations using always-on EndaceProbe packet capture. Test and validate cyber capabilities under pressure, ensuring teams can detect, respond, and recover effectively. Leverage data-driven insights to prove capabilities, identify and close skill gaps, and continuously improve performance. Improve response efficiency with a workforce skilled in using forensic evidence to resolve threats faster. Learn to maximize EndaceProbe's capabilities through hands-on, gamified labs and real-world threat scenarios. Measure team readiness with performance benchmarks against industry peers to inform cyber resilience strategies. 'Realistic, hands-on experience is critical to preparing cyber teams for today's fast-moving threats. By integrating Endace's enterprise-grade packet capture with the Immersive platform, we're removing barriers to working with the tools professionals rely on every day,' said Thanos Karpouzis, CTO, Immersive. 'This partnership enables organizations to prove and improve their readiness in a true-to-life environment, empowering teams to investigate, respond, and adapt with greater speed and confidence.' To learn more, and watch a short demonstration video, click here. About Endace Endace's scalable, always-on packet captur e gives Network Operations and Security teams the deep visibility they need for fast, accurate incident investigation with rich forensic evidence at their fingertips from all their tools. EndaceProbes provide enterprise-class packet sniffing in on-prem, public and private cloud environments, with rapid, centralized search and one-click access to full pcap data from leading security and performance solutions (including Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Cisco, Splunk, Elastic, and many others). Analyze network traffic using a single, unified console across all on-prem, private, or public cloud infrastructure for total hybrid cloud visibility. Capture every packet. See every threat. About Immersive Immersive, the leader in people-centric cyber resilience, helps your organization continuously prove and improve its ability to prevent and respond to cyber threats. Tailored to individual roles, our approach ensures your organization is always ready for an ever-evolving threat landscape, including the opportunities and challenges posed by AI. With a relentless focus on evidence, Immersive provides unmatched visibility into your cyber resilience. Through a single enterprise platform for individuals, teams, and the entire workforce, we empower your organization to Be Ready for what's next. Immersive is trusted by the world's largest organizations and governments, including Citi, Pfizer, Humana, HSBC, the UK Ministry of Defence, and the UK National Health Service. We are backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Summit Partners, Insight Partners, Citi Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Menlo Ventures.
Business Wire
16-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Immersive Announces AI-Powered Lab Customization Feature to Improve Cyber Skills Across the Technical Workforce
BRISTOL, England & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Immersive, the leader in people-centric cybersecurity, today announced its Immersive One AI-powered Lab Builder feature to give customers and partners powerful new ways to rapidly improve cyber skills across teams through customized labs and learning experiences. With this new tool supporting Immersive's Prove, Improve, Benchmark, and Report (PIBR) approach, cyber leaders will be able to easily create hands-on exercises and simulations for their technical workforce, including offensive, defensive, and secure-coding-based simulations to improve readiness against real-world threats. With the majority of cyber attacks involving the human element and costing global organizations an average of $4.88 million annually, the need to continuously prove and improve cyber capabilities has never been more critical. Despite this, many cyber leaders underinvest in cyber skills development, with decision-makers currently spending only 39% of their time assessing and improving cyber resilience. The new Immersive One Lab Builder feature directly addresses these challenges. Lab Builder Includes AI-Agent for Real-Time Lab Generation With rapidly evolving threats on the rise, cyber leaders need to quickly upskill their teams on the latest cyber capabilities to prevent or mitigate damage to their revenues and brand reputations. To help them adapt at the speed of cyber, the Lab Builder feature will include an AI agent that can automatically generate tailored labs for customers, including up-to-date threat labs, application security scenarios, and other realistic scenarios. Leveraging Immersive's extensive library of existing content and authoring capabilities, the agent can rapidly generate high-quality, highly tailored labs for organizations—further reducing the time and effort required to build them manually. 'Our Immersive One platform has gotten even more powerful with our AI-enabled Lab Builder feature, which allows our customers and partners to quickly create tailored learning experiences as part of a holistic cyber readiness program,' said Thanos Karpouzis, Chief Technology Officer at Immersive. 'We're seeing growing demand for practical, hands-on cybersecurity labs and exercises that mirror real-world scenarios and environments. Leaders gain unmatched agility with hyper-relevant training for their unique use-cases, improving their organization's overall cyber resilience.' How Immersive One's Lab Builder Feature Works Lab Builder drives rapid customized lab creation tailored to specific business needs, threat models, and internal systems, strengthening cyber capabilities of teams and individuals. The new feature offers significant flexibility, control, and depth in hands-on learning. Customers can address their organization's specific upskilling needs using gamification and other engagement-boosting techniques, while demonstrating cyber readiness and competency. For partners, it opens new opportunities to provide bespoke, high-value training aligned with cyber simulations, exercises, and complementary services, enhancing their offerings and differentiation. Lab Builder offers two key lab types to both customers and partners: Theory Labs: Enable the creation of interactive content to build foundational knowledge on cybersecurity policies, concepts, and niche topics – ideal for explaining the "why" and "what" behind cyber skills in a controlled, browser-based environment. Practical Labs: Allow customer and partner SMEs to build hands-on simulations using their organization's tools and environments to validate competency and apply what they've learned. Customers and partners can leverage labs independently or together for a multi-activity lab scenario. This provides a dynamic, customizable, enterprise-grade solution for developing and measuring employee cyber capabilities, helping build preparedness throughout the entire organization. Key benefits of Lab Builder include: Structured, Cohesive Cyber Skills Development: Create and assign custom theory and practical labs within structured learning paths tailored to individuals and teams, all centrally managed on the Immersive One platform. Policy-Aligned, Audit-Ready Theory Labs: Map content to internal standards to demonstrate relevance for compliance and learners. Real-World Practical Labs: Provide hands-on practice in production-like environments, accelerating skills transfer and incident response. Comprehensive Skills Measurement: Combine theory checks with practical challenges to deliver clear, defensible metrics on cyber readiness. The Lab Builder launch builds on Immersive's other recent AI innovations. In November 2024, Immersive launched its AI Scenario Generator that enables organizations to seamlessly generate threat scenarios for crisis simulations to ensure their workforces are ready for the latest threats. Lab Builder is available immediately on the Immersive One platform, which unifies Labs, Cyber Drills, Exercises, and Simulations in a continuous, evidence-based practice. With cutting-edge technology and a dynamic learning ecosystem, it helps organizations prove and improve their cyber capabilities to be ready for threats. To find out more about Immersive One's Lab Builder feature, please visit us here. About Immersive Immersive, the leader in people-centric cyber resilience, helps your organization continuously prove and improve its ability to prevent and respond to cyber threats. Tailored to individual roles, our approach ensures your organization is always ready for an ever-evolving threat landscape, including the opportunities and challenges posed by AI. With a relentless focus on evidence, Immersive provides unmatched visibility into your cyber resilience. Through a single enterprise platform for individuals, teams, and the entire workforce, we empower your organization to Be Ready for what's next. Immersive is trusted by the world's largest organizations and governments, including Citi, Pfizer, Humana, HSBC, the UK Ministry of Defence, and the UK National Health Service. We are backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Summit Partners, Insight Partners, Citi Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Menlo Ventures.
Techday NZ
22-05-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Immersive unveils new OT cybersecurity training for industry teams
Immersive has launched a new scenario-based operational technology (OT) cybersecurity solution aimed at preparing industrial teams to address threats in critical operational environments. The new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering is designed to cater to the unique requirements of OT environments, which have historically lagged in the implementation of robust security measures. As the threat to OT infrastructure has increased, recent industry findings indicate that 73% of OT professionals have reported intrusions affecting their environments. Immersive's solution focuses on upskilling both red teams, who simulate attackers, and blue teams, who defend systems, by providing interactive and on-demand training designed to equip professionals with the ability to detect, disrupt, and react to OT-specific cyber threats. This approach is intended to serve organisations at all stages of security maturity, with continuing content updates. The first release of the product addresses the training needs of defensive, offensive, and compliance-oriented teams operating in OT environments, and includes the necessary tools to conduct Immersive Cyber Drills. Thanos Karpouzis, Chief Technology Officer at Immersive, commented on the security challenges facing the sector. "Operational technology is now a front-line target for ransomware, nation-state attacks, and supply chain vulnerabilities, but the training available to defend it has historically lagged behind," Karpouzis said. Karpouzis added, "Immersive has filled this gap in the market with continuous OT exercising and hands-on, self-guided OT labs to prove and improve vital cyber capabilities. With the stakes being so high for industrial systems, the need for robust security measures and thorough training cannot be overstated." The key features of Immersive's Operational Technology Cybersecurity Training Suite include an Adaptive OT/ICS Skills Assessment, which is currently in beta. This assessment is integrated into the labs by default to baseline user proficiency in OT and industrial control systems (ICS) security. This feature is available exclusively to customers with an OT licence. The platform offers hands-on labs with a defensive focus, where users can learn how to counter various threat actors and malware specific to OT environments while developing OT cyber threat intelligence skills. A collection dedicated to OT threat actors allows learners to explore the tactics, techniques, and procedures of groups targeting OT systems, with emphasis on MITRE ATT&CK frameworks for both ICS and enterprise environments. A further component is the OT malware collection, which introduces users to malware affecting both conventional IT systems and OT-specific infrastructure such as programmable logic controllers. The OT cyber threat intelligence collection aims to build core CTI capabilities tailored to OT, supporting the tracking of campaigns targeting these systems. In terms of team-based exercises, the solution includes cyber range exercises that simulate attacks such as those conducted by the Sandworm threat actor, enabling participants to practice detection and response strategies in a controlled OT lab setting. Leadership teams can utilise a crisis simulation component designed to complement the technical exercises. This scenario-based training is aimed at improving communication, decision-making, and incident response during periods of high operational stress. Mark Schmitz, Chief Executive Officer at Immersive, noted the historical lack of OT-focused training within cyber programmes. "Effective OT cybersecurity training has historically been overlooked in cyber training programs, despite its critical importance to operational resilience," Schmitz said. Schmitz continued, "Strengthening hands-on training and implementing cyber drills for OT teams is key to building lasting resilience and maintaining seamless operations. Given the serious risks to productivity, finances, and even the environment, a robust training strategy isn't just recommended - it's imperative." The launch of this new OT cyber solution by Immersive comes as a response to the increasing frequency and severity of cyber incidents targeting industrial systems, reinforcing the need for comprehensive and practical training for operational technology teams.
Business Wire
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Immersive Launches Scenario-Based Operational Technology Solution to Prepare Industrial Teams for the Front Line
BRISTOL, England & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Immersive, the leader in people-centric cyber resilience, today announced the launch of its cutting-edge Operational Technology (OT) security solution to help organizations prove and improve their readiness for OT threats. This new offering marks a pivotal milestone in advancing cyber readiness for industrial environments in the OT space, which have traditionally lacked robust security measures. As threat actors increasingly target OT infrastructure, with 73% of OT professionals reporting intrusions that impact these environments, organizations can no longer rely solely on traditional IT security practices. Immersive's new OT upskilling solution delivers an interactive, on-demand approach designed to upskill both red and blue teams, arming them with real-world capabilities to detect, disrupt, and respond to OT-specific cyber threats. The new solution offers powerful learning experiences to empower organizations at every stage of their security maturity journey with new content delivered over time. This first release is designed to address the training needs of both defensive, offensive, and compliance-driven teams in OT environments. It also delivers all the elements needed to run Immersive Cyber Drills. 'Operational technology is now a front-line target for ransomware, nation-state attacks, and supply chain vulnerabilities, but the training available to defend it has historically lagged behind,' said Thanos Karpouzis, Chief Technology Officer at Immersive. 'Immersive has filled this gap in the market with continuous OT exercising and hands-on, self-guided OT labs to prove and improve vital cyber capabilities. With the stakes being so high for industrial systems, the need for robust security measures and thorough training cannot be overstated.' Key Features of Immersive's Operational Technology Cybersecurity Training Suite: Adaptive OT/ICS Skills Assessment (BETA): A new assessment feature—integrated into Immersive's labs by default—baselines user proficiency in OT and ICS security. This feature is exclusively available to customers with the OT license. Hands-On Labs – Defensive Focus: Learn how to address threat actors, malware, and cyber threat intelligence for any OT environment. OT Threat Actor Collection: Explore the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of known threat actors targeting OT systems, with a focus on MITRE ATT&CK for ICS and Enterprise frameworks. OT Malware Collection: Dive into real-world malware affecting OT sectors, including threats to both general-purpose systems and OT-specific infrastructure, such as programmable logic controllers. OT Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Collection: Build foundational CTI skills tailored to OT environments, enabling teams to investigate and track OT-focused threat campaigns. Realistic Scenario-Based Team Exercises Cyber Range Exercises – Sandworm Intrusion (Defensive): Test critical skills in a collaborative lab simulating an attack by the notorious Sandworm threat actor, providing teams with the opportunity to practice detection and response strategies in a safe, controlled OT environment. Crisis Sim: Join a leadership-driven cyber simulation designed to complement the Cyber Range Exercise, this scenario-based training helps organizations strengthen communication, decision-making, and incident response coordination in high-pressure situations. "Effective OT cybersecurity training has historically been overlooked in cyber training programs, despite its critical importance to operational resilience,' said Mark Schmitz, CEO of Immersive. 'Strengthening hands-on training and implementing cyber drills for OT teams is key to building lasting resilience and maintaining seamless operations. Given the serious risks to productivity, finances, and even the environment, a robust training strategy isn't just recommended—it's imperative." To learn more about Immersive's Operation Technology Cybersecurity Training Suite, please visit our blog HERE. About Immersive Immersive, the leader in people-centric cyber resilience, helps your organization continuously prove and improve its ability to prevent and respond to cyber threats. Tailored to individual roles, our approach ensures your organization is always ready for an ever-evolving threat landscape, including the opportunities and challenges posed by AI. With a relentless focus on evidence, Immersive provides unmatched visibility into your cyber resilience. Through a single enterprise platform for individuals, teams, and the entire workforce, we empower your organization to Be Ready for what's next. Immersive is trusted by the world's largest organizations and governments, including Citi, Pfizer, Humana, HSBC, the UK Ministry of Defence, and the UK National Health Service. We are backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Summit Partners, Insight Partners, Citi Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Menlo Ventures.
