SecureSet

SecureSet operated as a specialized cybersecurity education company, providing intensive training programs designed to rapidly skill individuals for roles in the cybersecurity sector. The company was founded in 2014 by Dr. Bret Fund and Alex Kreilein in Denver, Colorado, to address a significant talent shortage in the industry. Dr. Fund, with a Ph.D. in Business Administration and experience as a university professor, leveraged his background in education to create a hands-on, immersive curriculum. He collaborated with over 100 cybersecurity employers to ensure the training programs were aligned with industry needs.

The firm's business model was centered on tuition-based immersive bootcamps. SecureSet provided several distinct programs, including the 20-week CORE program, which offered 800 hours of instruction on topics like cryptography, network security, and threat intelligence for students aiming for roles like security engineer or penetration tester. It also offered the HUNT program, a 12-week course focused on analytics, incident response, and hunt skills for aspiring SOC analysts and threat intelligence analysts. For beginners, a six-week, 40-hour introductory workshop called PREP was available online, covering fundamentals in networks, systems, and Python. These programs were characterized by a blend of theoretical instruction and practical, hands-on lab work.

SecureSet expanded its operations by opening a second campus in Colorado Springs and also ran a startup accelerator to fund and mentor early-stage cybersecurity companies. A key milestone in its growth was the 2018 acquisition of HackEd, a cybersecurity training provider in the Washington D.C. area, which facilitated its expansion to the East Coast. In August 2019, SecureSet itself was acquired by Flatiron School, a prominent coding bootcamp, in a move to integrate SecureSet's specialized cybersecurity curriculum into Flatiron's broader educational offerings. Following the acquisition, Dr. Fund became the Head of Cybersecurity for Flatiron School. As of January 2022, SecureSet was fully integrated and operates under the Flatiron School brand.

Keywords: cybersecurity education, IT training, cybersecurity bootcamp, Bret Fund, Alex Kreilein, Flatiron School, CORE program, HUNT program, information security training, hands-on learning, security engineer training, threat intelligence, penetration testing, network security, immersive education, cybersecurity accelerator, acquired, WeWork, workforce development