Hack The Box launches crisis simulations, SOC training for cyber readiness
▼ Summary
– Hack The Box (HTB) has expanded its cyber readiness platform with new capabilities like SOC Range, Crisis Control, and AI-augmented learning to help security leaders evaluate team performance and organizational resilience.
– The platform integrates offensive, defensive, and purple-team training, combining hands-on SOC training, crisis simulations, and workforce intelligence to develop readiness across analysts and teams.
– HTB’s defensive security expansion includes integrating Let’s Defend, introducing SOC Range with over 250 alerts, and growing its Academy to over 230 defensive courses with doubled role-based coverage.
– New capabilities include SOC Range for realistic analyst investigations, Crisis Control for technical and executive simulations, HTB Coach for AI learning assistance, and enterprise workforce management tools.
– HTB achieved Department of Defense DCWF 8140 approval for its HTB DOA certificate and added its Certified Offensive AI Expert to Synack’s SRT Pathways program, with a new Detection Engineering path and certification planned.
Hack The Box (HTB) is rolling out new platform features aimed at giving security leaders a sharper view of team skills, operational performance, and overall cyber readiness. As artificial intelligence reshapes both cyberattacks and defense operations, HTB is broadening its platform to help organizations pinpoint weaknesses, evaluate team effectiveness, and build stronger organizational resilience.
The updated platform combines hands-on Security Operations Center (SOC) training, realistic crisis simulations, AI-powered learning assistance, and workforce intelligence tools into a single environment. This integrated approach allows organizations to develop and measure readiness across individual analysts, entire teams, and broader security operations functions.
Following its acquisition of Let’s Defend, HTB has strengthened its offensive, defensive, and purple-team training capabilities. The goal is to help organizations improve collaboration across security functions while boosting incident response and crisis preparedness.
Industry research points to a clear shift toward collaborative, cross-functional security models that bring offensive, defensive, and AI capabilities closer together. The HTB Cybersecurity Workforce Intelligence Report, released in May, shows that organizations are moving beyond traditional red-versus-blue silos. AI is changing cybersecurity roles and driving demand for advanced skills, forcing CISOs to rethink how they plan their workforce.
“Cybersecurity teams can no longer afford to think in silos,” said Dawn-Marie Vaughan, Global Offering Lead – Cybersecurity at DXC. “The most effective professionals are the ones with skills that span the spectrum: those who understand how attackers think, how systems are built, and how defenses need to respond. It is no longer enough to understand only one side of the problem. The ability to attack in order to defend will define stronger, more resilient security teams going forward.”
HTB’s push into defensive security includes integrating Let’s Defend and launching SOC Range, a realistic training environment where analysts can gain hands-on experience and validate their performance before facing live incidents. HTB Academy now offers more than 230 defensive security courses, with blue-team offerings expanded significantly. The defensive security curriculum has grown more than sixfold, and role-based coverage has doubled to include Threat Hunter, SOC Manager, Incident Responder, and Information Security Specialist.
The blue-team lab library has also expanded by nearly 70%. SOC Range extends these capabilities further, giving analysts access to more than 250 alerts to triage and investigate across a variety of SOC roles and scenarios.
“As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve, CISOs face pressure to ensure their teams are ready to respond to complex risks,” said Haris Pylarinos, CEO of Hack The Box. “The nature of security work is changing quickly, and teams are being asked to do more than ever before. Security leaders need a clear view of the cyber capabilities their organization requires, how those requirements map to existing in-house skills, and where the most critical gaps remain. Our new capabilities enable CISOs to build a strategic cyber readiness plan across teams, roles and response functions, giving leaders greater confidence in their ability to prevent, detect and respond to attacks.”
The new capabilities include:
- SOC Range – Helps organizations build and assess analyst readiness through realistic SOC investigations, response workflows, and security operations scenarios. Combined with HTB’s Threat Range exercises, these tools create a progression from individual skill-building to team-based SOC readiness.
- Crisis Control – Delivers crisis simulations that blend technical investigations with executive decision-making exercises. This helps organizations identify gaps and validate response capabilities before a real-world incident occurs.
- HTB Coach – Provides AI-augmented learning assistance for real-time guidance, explanations, and knowledge reinforcement, accelerating cybersecurity skill development.
- Enterprise Workforce Development and Curriculum Management – Gives organizations more flexibility to deliver structured or self-directed learning while tracking progress, skills development, and readiness across teams.HTB plans to further expand its blue-team portfolio with a new Detection Engineering learning path launching this month, followed by a corresponding certification in Q3. These additions will help organizations build and validate expertise in one of cybersecurity’s fastest-growing disciplines.In addition to these product updates, HTB has achieved Department of Defense Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF) 8140 approval for its HTB Defense Operations Analyst (HTB DOA) certificate program across multiple cyber defense work roles. The company has also added its Certified Offensive AI Expert (HTB COAE) to Synack’s SRT Pathways program, bringing the total number of HTB certifications recognized by Synack to four.