The 2026 NICE Conference & Expo in Philadelphia was an inspiring reminder of why cyber security education matters so deeply, and why the work we do through SecureAcademy is so important. 

Bringing together educators, government leaders, industry experts, and nonprofit organizations, the conference focused on one of the most urgent challenges facing our industry: building the cyber security workforce of the future. Under the theme “From Foundations to the Future: Transforming the Cyber Security Workforce,” the event created a valuable space to discuss how we prepare students, educators, and institutions for a rapidly changing security landscape. 

For me, the conversations at NICE felt especially meaningful. As someone who works closely with academic partners through SecureAcademy, Check Point’s education initiative, I see every day how important it is to connect education with real-world skills. The industry conversation has clearly moved beyond simply “teaching cyber security.” The focus is now on creating scalable, inclusive, and practical pathways into cyber careers. These pathways need to connect foundational knowledge with emerging technologies, hands-on learning, and the real needs of employers. 

The agenda reflected this direction through sessions and workshops that addressed both today’s skills gap and tomorrow’s challenges. For example, the pre-conference workshops included “LLM Security Workforce Skills Through Live Labs,” which focused on securing AI systems and understanding AI-enabled threats, and “Already Connected: Cyber Security, Data Life-cycles, & Workforce Design,” which explored how cyber risk, data, and workforce roles intersect across the full lifecycle. 

The event also featured prominent speakers from across the cyber security ecosystem, including M. K. Palmore of Apogee Global RMS, Brian Hansen of Mastercard, Christina Morillo of the New York Football Giants, Calvin Nobles of University of Maryland Global Campus, Colin Soutar of Deloitte, and more. M. K. Palmore also delivered a plenary keynote titled “Securing the Future: Ethics, Trust, and Human Judgment in an AI-Augmented Cyber World,” highlighting the growing importance of preparing people, not just deploying tools, for an AI-shaped cyber security landscape. 

In my opinion, this reinforces why programs like Check Point’s SecureAcademy matter so much. SecureAcademy supports higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations with cyber security educational content and services, helping students build practical, industry-relevant skills and work toward recognized certifications. Today, SecureAcademy collaborates with over 190 academic and nonprofit partners in 80 countries across the globe, helping institutions bring practical, industry-aligned cyber security education into the classroom. The program offers learning paths across areas such as core cyber security training, cloud security, security automation, Check Point technologies, and troubleshooting. It is part of Check Point Services, the expert-led organization that delivers training, professional services, incident response, assessments, consulting, and managed security services to organizations worldwide. 

This is exactly the kind of structured, hands-on content educators need to help students connect classroom learning to real-world cyber careers. 

What excites me most is the opportunity to bridge the gap between education and employability. Cyber security education cannot stay theoretical. Students need access to current technologies, meaningful labs, certifications, and exposure to how security teams actually operate. Educators need content they can integrate into existing curricula. Institutions need partners who can help them move faster and scale impact. 

That is where SecureAcademy plays an important role. By making industry-recognized cyber security content more accessible to academic partners, Check Point helps expand the pipeline of future cyber professionals. Recent partnerships with Columbia University (USA), Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria), UCEN Manchester (UK), and BMS College of Engineering (India) are further expanding this reach, giving more students and educators access to hands-on cyber security training and certification pathways. This is not only about inspiring interest in the field. It is about helping students gain the skills, confidence, and practical experience they need to enter it. 

As the cyber security workforce conversation continues to evolve, one thing feels increasingly clear: the future of cyber defense depends on how well we prepare the next generation. Technology will keep changing. Threats will keep evolving. But strong, practical, accessible cyber security education will remain one of the most important investments we can make. 

And I’m proud that through SecureAcademy, Check Point is part of that mission.