Fund the workforce that defends critical infrastructure. Five annual sponsor levels — from Diamond to Bronze — each with concrete deliverables on the village floor, in the curriculum, and across our podcast and social reach.
THE ICS VILLAGE (EIN: 83-1371184), a 501(c)(3) organization, formalized in 2018 with origins going back to 2013, equips industry and policymakers to better defend industrial equipment through experiential awareness, education, and training.
High-profile industrial control systems security issues have grabbed headlines and sparked changes throughout the global supply chain. The ICS Village allows defenders of any experience level to understand unique failure modes of these systems and how to better prepare and respond to the changing threat landscape.
Interactive simulated ICS environments, such as Hack the Plan[e]t, mimic realistic environments to preserve safe, secure, and reliable operations. The Village provides a compelling experience for all learner levels and types of IT and industrial equipment.
The numbers behind the village — volunteer hours, conference attendees, CTF players, podcast reach, and the audiences sponsorship dollars actually meet.
Founder of SCYTHE and GRIMM, and Co-Founder of the ICS Village. Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute. Recognized as "Top 50 in Cyber" by Business Insider and two-time "Tech Titan."
U.S. Army veteran (Battle Captain, Brigade Engineering Officer — Operation Iraqi Freedom). West Point CS (with honors); MS Telecom Maryland; MBA Florida.
Co-Founder of ICS Village. Leads the CyPhy Product group at GRIMM, securing Industrial Control Systems and their networks.
Nearly three decades in Operational Technology. Built cyber-physical testing environments for OT systems. Retired Air National Guard, 20+ years in Cyber Warfare Operations.
ICS Village has been building stronger and better relationships with many partners of industry — conferences, agencies, vendors, and academic institutions.
Over a decade of participation. ICS Village fills 8,000+ sq ft with speakers, six workshops with CISA / NREL / INL / MITRE, and ICS-themed escape rooms sponsored by CISA and DHS.
Formerly Hack the Capitol. Two-day ICS Village policy + practitioner convening in Washington, DC each June — presented with IST's UnDisruptable27 project and Akin. Leading voices in ICS engaging directly with policymakers, think tanks, and the press. See Critical Effect 2026 →
Perennial part of RSAC since 2015 and a member of the Program Committee. RSAC Sandbox: hands-on ICS education for the industry's largest security conference.
Formal MOUs with CISA, DOE, DOD, and the Navy for continual collaboration and partnership. Long-standing program with Idaho National Lab (INL) and CISA.
Hou Sec Con · S4 · SANS ICS Summit · Energy Sec · Texas Cyber Summit · Exxon Mobil private events · Dragos + ICS Village OG&E · Industrial Security Roadshow.
Industry partners help align apprenticeship programs to real-world workforce outcomes — through grants, MOUs, and curriculum collaboration.
The "National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy" lays out the administration's approach to meeting immediate and long-term cyber workforce needs. ICS Village contributed input to that strategy from years of experience with critical-infrastructure education and training.
ICS encompasses the world of physics — Electricity, Fuel, Water, Manufacturing — plus many other critical infrastructures we rely on every day. Today many of these cybersecurity jobs remain vacant because not enough experienced workers are in the field.
56% of companies report being unable to execute existing security plans due to workforce shortages, and training programs only meet 68% of demand. Without organizations like ICS Village, hands-on equipment training is down to less than a dozen colleges.
ICS Village works closely with Siemens Energy as part of the Cybersecurity & Industrial Infrastructure Security Apprenticeship Program (CIISAp). The goal: build then strengthen the education-to-workforce pipeline between industry, academic, and non-profit organizations — preparing the next generation of cyber defenders for aerospace, energy systems, cyber-informed engineering, medical systems, and other critical sectors.
Split across Trainer Kits (35%) — PLC, HMI, switch, buttons, switches, lights, take-home VMs — Critical Effect pilot (5%) for debut training, and Curriculum Development (35%) with top-tier instructors covering PLC programming (IEC 61131-3), HMI config, network protocol analysis, scanning, and OS / network device hardening.
Staff supporting and delivering trainings for the ICS apprenticeship program, plus content curation as curriculum expands.
Travel for team members to program events, software licenses, and IT hardware.
The Village's interactive learning approach invites your team to get hands on with real components — PLCs, HMIs, RTUs, and actuators — in environments that mirror real industrial sectors.
Beyond the 15–20 public events we support each year, key sponsors are invited to host private events that the Village supports for education and training.
We've signed to support the Women's Cyber Games and the maritime industry. Active formal MOUs with DHS and DOE for collaboration.
Education for underprivileged children and military personnel — traverse from board through to the control room to see the cyber-physical effects, focused on government and underrepresented communities.
Quantico Cyber Hub (QCH) and public-sector tangible demos — put in front of people to witness how it works on real hardware.
Monthly series, top 5% globally. Inclusion in podcast / interview features available to Diamond and Platinum sponsors.
Apprenticeships are a grass-roots success story. We build the pipeline of solid trainers and mentors so programs scale as more companies and schools join.
With each sponsor we look to include in-kind donations of displays and ICS Village content when applicable. All swag, vendor hardware, and vendor content will be delivered to ICS Village in a format that can be distributed and / or utilized.
Email us or set up a 30-minute call. We'll walk through tier selection, in-kind options, and how your sponsorship maps to deliverables across the next twelve months of village events.
