Everybody Wins: Tanium’s Partnership with the National Cyber League Supports Competition, Growth, and Careers for Students

At Tanium, we know that software alone will never be enough to safeguard our data, secure our networks, and protect our most crucial IT systems from every cyber threat and vulnerability. No matter how good the platform – and our platform is very good – it takes skilled cybersecurity professionals to understand the cyber threat landscape and master the skills and tools needed to protect us from those threats – for this generation and those to come.

That’s why we’re proud to partner with the National Cyber League (NCL), a cybersecurity competition hosted by Cyber Skyline. For over a decade, the NCL has striven to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals by offering accessible and inclusive competitions that simulate genuine cyber threats.

What is the National Cyber League?

The National Cyber League (NCL) is an innovative educational initiative that provides a competitive platform for students to apply classroom knowledge to real-world cybersecurity challenges in a safe, online environment. With the goal of helping bridge the gap between education and careers in the cybersecurity field, the NCL advocates for skills-based hiring by providing competition metrics that students can be assessed against rather than having them rely only on coursework to build their skills. Additionally, the NCL provides a strong network of students and professionals in some of the most widely known cybersecurity organizations, including Tanium.

Who participates in the National Cyber League?

NCL competitions are open to high school and college students, especially those from community colleges and lesser-known universities. Participants gain practical experience, improve their problem-solving skills, and receive a Scouting Report that showcases their capabilities to potential employers. The NCL emphasizes diversity and inclusion, targeting students from diverse backgrounds.

These students hone skills and gain experience confronting true-to-life cybersecurity challenges in a low-stakes, competitive environment as well as receive mentoring and professional development training that prepares them for their future careers in the cybersecurity industry. Additionally, NCL gains visibility with recruiters from some of the industry’s top firms through their early career job board and networking events.

Over the last couple of years, the National Cyber League has benefited generously from the time, support, and dedication of the Tanium team. By participating in our career-focused events, sharing job postings with our community, and providing volunteers for our community outreach, Tanium has been such a valuable asset for our students.

National Cyber League members

Tanium’s partnership with the National Cyber League

2024 marks our third year in partnering with the NCL. We currently contribute to ensure that the NCL can provide affordable memberships for all students, regardless of their background.

A boon for recruiting top talent

For Tanium, our support of Cyber Skyline and the NCL has been a textbook example of doing well by doing good. In the demanding and competitive field of cybersecurity, attracting top talent is an integral part of staying on the cutting edge.

By working with NCL, we broaden our recruitment pool for both full-time positions and internships to include top talent from schools across the country. At NCL events and through the NCL job board, members have priority access to a variety of early-career openings at Tanium and benefit from networking and mentorship opportunities with team members. Likewise, Tanium recruiters and team members have the opportunity to discover and network with talented individuals from a wide variety of demographic, regional, experiential, and socio-economic backgrounds, which helps us create more diverse and dynamic teams.

We are proud to formally partner with Tanium and look forward to continuing our amazing impact on the next generation of cyber defenders.

National Cyber Leagues’ impact on Tanium team members

Recruiting is only one way in which Tanium benefits from our relationship with the National Cyber League. Many of Tanium’s top-performing technical experts have roots in NCL competition or were recruited by way of NCL events.

Building confidence to lead

Melissa Bischoping, Tanium’s Senior Director of Security and Product Design Research, had her first experience with the NCL at a 2019 Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) event in Pittsburgh. She was only one month into her first cybersecurity role at the time. The following year, she joined her school’s Capture the Flag (CTF) team at the SANS Technology Institute, where she was studying for her master’s degree. “I jumped at the opportunity to be part of that!” says Melissa. “Not including the WiCyS CTF in 2019, I’ve participated in 5 seasons over 4 years with NCL.”

“Competing in NCL builds confidence,” Melissa continues. “I’m a fan of data, so being able to analyze my performance each season and see where learning had paid off was a confidence boost.” Melissa has since “retired” from the NCL competition but remains active in the NCL community as a coach and mentor, having recently supported the NCL at WiCyS 2024 in Nashville. “While I know the mountain of threats we face in this industry, I am confident that programs like NCL will continue to grow capable professionals to join the industry and keep the world safe.”

Learning to give back

Christian Sandoval competed in three seasons of NCL before joining Tanium as a support engineer. His experience with cyber games and CTF competitions helped him refine his skills, which has given him an edge at Tanium and in previous roles. “NCL was a training ground for me,” he says. “[It’s] helped me tremendously at Tanium and other positions I’ve held. I’ve been able to complete work tasks much more efficiently and can teach those around me how to more efficiently look through logs for patterns because of the skills I learned along the way.”

Going forward, Christian wants to pay forward the advantages that he’s received from his participation in NCL competition. “Eventually, I plan to introduce cyber games and CTFs to students at my local high school,” he says. “I come from a low-income community, and I feel that NCL would help show certain students at these schools what’s out there for them after high school.”

Teamwork makes the dream work

Nick Downey discovered the National Cyber League through his college’s Cybersecurity Club before competing in two spring seasons. Now a support engineer at Tanium, Nick credits his NCL competitive experience with teaching him the importance of a growth mindset. “The top score is awesome,” says Nick, “but the knowledge you gain is irreplaceable. [NCL competition is] a springboard to learn new things; if there was something you didn’t know in the competition, then go and research it afterward.”

Nick reminds students who are new to NCL that the CTF competition is a learning opportunity. “If you can come out of the competition and say, ‘I learned something today,’ then that is time well spent.”

Likewise, Nick advises students who are in or preparing to enter the job market to view NCL events as an opportunity to develop teamwork and communication skills that are non-negotiable in today’s workplace. “NCL competitions helped prepare me for the workforce by showing me that it is okay not to have answers. If you can get those answers or know someone else who can get them, it is fine. [At Tanium] we rely on our team to fill the gaps, and we are constantly in communication with each other. Much like the team game, we need to ask questions, learn new things, and offer help where possible.”

National Cyber League members

Looking forward

As we kick off our search for Tanium’s 2025 summer interns, we are looking forward to working in close partnership with the National Cyber League. To learn more about Tanium internships, please visit our informational internship page.

National Cyber League Fall 2024 season begins soon! Over 8,500 students across the country joined last year’s NCL spring Competition season – get in on the opportunity to gain practice with real-world cybersecurity skills that will help you land a job or internship! Read more on the NCL website.