Address the IT industry’s general shortage in skilled cybersecurity workforce by encouraging military veterans to pursue a career in security and helping educate them for the career transition.

We believe veterans are well suited to transition into cybersecurity because their service gives them skills that make them uniquely qualified for it. In addition, our current military is as diverse as it has ever been. We believe investments and supporting veterans in pursuit of technology education, specifically in cybersecurity, can help our veterans naturally transition their career and can result in a great source of diverse talent for the cybersecurity industry.

Palo Alto Networks has pledged to train 400 veterans and transitioning service members over the next five years. We embarked on this mission to train transitioning military veterans in cybersecurity by partnering with Vets in Tech and extending our existing Palo Alto Networks Academy Program.

After completion of the coursework and successfully passing an accreditation exam, candidates will receive their Palo Alto Networks ACE (Accredited Configuration Engineer) accreditation and career guidance on entering the cybersecurity workforce.

Our alliance with Vets in Tech allows us to work with other companies to assist those vets transitioning into the private sector through education, entrepreneurship and employment.

To date, we have successfully trained over 75 veterans in our program and have future courses scheduled to be held across the United States. Palo Alto Networks has many veterans now on staff, helping us achieve our mission of maintaining trust in the digital age by preventing successful cyber attacks.

Our collective commitment is to bring more veterans into technology and cybersecurity roles and to support the investments we continue to make in building a diverse workforce.

Dustin Whidden