Cynaptics underscores the significance of proven skills in executing cyber tasks, viewing cyber roles as a series of distinct tasks, each with a clear starting point, a sequence of actions with applied techniques, and a desired end state which yields a specific outcome. This structured approach forms the foundation of the Cynaptics taxonomy, which serves as a more flexible framework for defining cyber operations job roles, crafting learning and development content, and mapping out career pathways.

Cynaptics uses a structured approach to improve cybersecurity skills, organizing them into categories such as professional specialties, skills, techniques, technologies, and proficiency levels. Each category is carefully designed to match the ongoing needs of the cybersecurity industry, taking cues from established standards like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework but also adding elements to cover offensive roles and limiting the scope to technical tasks.

Advanced technologies and AI play crucial roles in cybersecurity, but the human brain remains the most vital asset. Human intelligence complements technology, bringing unique skills that AI cannot replicate, such as creativity, ethical judgment, and adaptability. These qualities allow humans to effectively counteract and anticipate cyber threats beyond the capabilities of AI alone. Human insight and intuition are irreplaceable in maintaining robust cybersecurity defenses:

Humans can think creatively, anticipating and countering hacker tactics beyond fixed algorithms.

Cybersecurity professionals can swiftly adapt to new threats and changing conditions without the need for reprogramming.

The brain’s pattern recognition skills can detect anomalies and suspicious activities that might escape automated systems.

Humans navigate complex ethical and strategic decisions, balancing effectiveness with broader impacts like privacy and legality.

Effective cybersecurity relies on teamwork and clear communication, leveraging human linguistic skills and empathetic understanding.

The Cyber Cortex serves as a dynamic visual representation that maps the Cynaptics Specialties, Skills, and Proficiencies within an organizational, team, or individual context. This visualization tool is designed to provide a clear and accessible reference map, allowing users to understand and assess the cyber capabilities at different levels of granularity.

The positioning of Specialties in the Cyber Cortex is systematically laid out in a structure reminiscent of a neural network, aligning with three horizontal positions that reflect different categories of cyber operations:

Vertically, the Cyber Cortex divides these specialties into two overarching categories:

This structured visualisation within the Cortex allows for a quick assessment of capabilities and gaps across different dimensions of cybersecurity operations.

Cyber Cortex uses a heatmap to visualize the extent and depth of a person’s learning for specific skills at various levels. The color and number within each square indicate the tasks that the person has successfully completed, effectively mirroring brain activity during learning. This visualization is akin to a brain activity scan, where increased learning and activity are represented visually.

Skills and knowledge naturally degrade over time, which is why Cynaptics has developed an algorithm to model this degradation. The algorithm accounts for the proficiency level of the skills, with higher proficiency skills degrading more slowly than those at lower levels. This reflects the more complex learning required at higher levels, resulting in a non-linear degradation pattern, mirroring the non-linear learning curve associated with mastering advanced tasks.

Cynaptics is more than just another skills framework; it functions as an adapter that facilitates the modelling and articulation of complex cyber skills concepts. It simplifies the complexities of cybersecurity by deconstructing it into its fundamental components. Incorporating essential principles of learning and skill retention, Cynaptics models these elements in a manner that simplifies the measurement of cyber skills, ensuring a detailed yet balanced approach.

Cynaptics is designed to be used as either a standalone model or as an integrative tool that bridges the gap between various existing cyber skills frameworks and the actual job roles and descriptions. This adaptability is crucial in a field as dynamic and diverse as cybersecurity, where the specific requirements can vary significantly between organisations and sectors.

Cynaptics acts as a translator, harmonising various cyber skills frameworks into a cohesive, unified model. It establishes a common language and flexible structure, enabling organizations to align the skills and competencies from different frameworks—such as NICE (National Initiative for Cyber Education) or other industry-specific models—to its own taxonomy. This capability extends to custom frameworks developed in-house, making it uniquely relevant to each organisation’s specific needs.

In the example shown, the NICE framework categorizes cyber skills and work roles in detail, which can be too intricate and not directly applicable across all organisational contexts. Cynaptics streamlines this process by mapping these detailed skills to specific techniques within a given Cynaptics skill set. This allows a role defined by NICE to be articulated using Cynaptics’ skills and techniques framework. The same approach applies to an organisation’s bespoke skills framework. As a result, Cynaptics facilitates a seamless mapping between various skills frameworks, enabling organisations to integrate their existing skills requirements and current capabilities within Cynaptics. This integration does not discard previous investments in strategic workforce planning but rather, it amplifies and enhances them.