Bridging the OT Security Skills Gap: A Spotlight on Hacktonics

In our latest webinar, we had the pleasure of hosting Awais Rashid and Joe Gardiner, co-founders of Hacktonics. Both Awais (a professor of cybersecurity at the University of Bristol) and Joe (a lecturer with hands-on ICS experience) are on a mission to make ICS and OT cybersecurity training far more accessible - an urgent need in an industry where the skills gap often slows progress and leaves critical infrastructure exposed.

Hacktonics’ Approach

1. Hands-On Training Boxes Hacktonics has developed portable training kits that simulate realistic ICS environments. Trainees gain experience configuring, attacking (ethically!), and defending actual devices. This direct exposure fosters far deeper understanding than any purely theoretical or virtual course ever could.
2. LinICS (Linux for ICS) The team created a specialist Linux-based platform, bundled with OT-specific tools mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK for ICS framework. Think of it as “Kali for ICS,” but with an emphasis on protocols like Modbus, DNP3, and industrial-grade hardware. By providing a one-stop platform - containing both modern and legacy utilities - Hacktonics cuts the usual complexity of spinning up ICS test labs.
3. Boot Camps & Bespoke Courses Free, introductory sessions for newcomers or anyone curious about transitioning into OT security. These allow you to trial real ICS scenarios under expert guidance. Bespoke Courses: Tailored corporate training to upskill in-house teams — particularly beneficial for IT security teams who want to gain OT fluency or safety engineers who need to weave security into their processes.
4. Community Focus Although Hacktonics offers commercial solutions, their ethos is firmly rooted in community building. They regularly host sessions at local meetups, B-Sides events, and student conferences, aiming to nurture new talent by lowering the barriers to entry.