Women in CyberSecurity Launches Just Hacking Program To Address Skills Gaps - Security Boulevard

by Jaime Hampton on June 26, 2026 Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) recently launched the Just Hacking Program, a technical training initiative focused on practical skills that are most in demand for current cybersecurity roles. The program will begin with three courses covering AI-assisted cyber defense operations, script-based malware analysis and web application penetration testing. The curriculum is based on member assessments and workforce research identifying technical skills gaps across the cybersecurity field. One source informing the curriculum is an assessment conducted by cybersecurity workforce analytics company Skillrex. The company evaluated WiCyS members across 60 core cybersecurity competencies and found that they performed 14.5% better than the wider workforce used for comparison. The assessment also identified areas where members could benefit from additional technical training. Skillrex then worked with the Just Hacking team to translate those findings into the program’s initial coursework. The first course, AI Cyber Defense Ops, is scheduled for July 6 through Aug. 3. WiCyS said it will teach participants to use Anthropic’s Claude in blue team work, including detection engineering, incident response, and governance, risk and compliance. The online course is primarily self-paced, with weekly live sessions led by the course author or Just Hacking staff. Another course, tentatively planned for late August through September, will focus on analyzing script-based threats, understanding malware behavior and improving defensive techniques. A web application penetration testing course for junior analysts is expected to follow in October, covering offensive security fundamentals, the OWASP Top 10 and hands-on testing of web applications. The classes are open to current WiCyS members in good standing at all career levels. Applicants must submit a separate application for each course, and admission to one does not guarantee acceptance into another. WiCyS says participants should expect to spend approximately five to seven hours per week completing the self-paced materials and attending weekly live mentor sessions. The Just Hacking Program curriculum is also connected to research WiCyS conducted with FourOne Insights on how targeted skills development affects cybersecurity employment outcomes. Researchers matched employers identified in survey responses with 56 companies represented in Lightcast job posting and professional profile data, then compared results based on whether the organizations used practices such as mentorship, personalized training and planning based on employees’ skills. That analysis found WiCyS members had a 32% lower attrition rate than the compared Fortune 500 benchmark. The report also estimated that high-impact practices, including formal mentorship and personalized skills-based learning, could produce more than $125,000 in avoided productivity losses over an average cybersecurity employee’s tenure through faster hiring and longer retention. WiCyS said the program is intended to give members practical experience while helping them prepare for increasingly specialized cybersecurity roles. Mary Jane Suarez Partain, program director at WiCyS, said employers need professionals who can demonstrate technical ability and adapt quickly as threats change. “The Just Hacking Program allows us to take real workforce data and turn it into meaningful learning opportunities for our members. By aligning training directly with identified skills gaps and industry needs, we are helping strengthen both individual career growth and the cybersecurity workforce as a whole,” Suarez said. Recent Articles By Author New PACT Protocol Could Help Sites Distinguish User-Backed AI Agents From Malicious Bots OpenAI Expands Daybreak With Codex Security and GPT-5.5-Cyber Updates A10 Acquires TrojAI to Extend AI Security Into Agent Workflows More from Jaime Hampton June 26, 2026 AI, Cybersecurity, Just Hacking Program, WiCyS