Cybersecurity is a field that has proven to be a necessity in the modern day. For the past few decades, societies across the globe have immensely increased their dependence on computer systems to the point where now internet access is comparable to a basic human need. So many facets of our societal foundation, like communication, transportation, education, finances, health care, and news updates, to name a few, are now entrenched with the internet that those without it are often left behind. However, with this shift to so many sectors going digital, this means that there is a plethora of sensitive information that is located on these computer systems that societies rely so heavily upon. Information and identity theft was more practical before the introduction of computer systems and the Internet. Perpetrators would have to physically go into buildings, which could be exponentially dangerous, steal the information, and leave without getting caught.

Additionally, the risk of getting caught is heightened when considering the possibility of confronting armed police officers. However, information that is stored on a computer can pose less of a high-risk-high-reward scenario since those who are knowledgeable about computer systems and bypassing protections could access lucrative information without having to be as invasive as breaking and entering. This perceived lowered bar of entry can pose as an opportunity for those with malicious intentions, especially if they can get off with much more minor consequences than they would for breaking and entering. Although, it is not simply malicious hackers working independently that necessitates concern. Information regarding federal or state officials and information is not the only type of private information that is profitable. The personal information of citizens has also been seen to be profitable for private businesses and corporations seeking to make a profit. Thus, it is imperative that every type of computer, from federally owned to privately owned by citizens, is adequately protected.

Since the internet and computer systems are such a prevalent part of society, the increased need for adequately implemented Cybersecurity has coincided alongside it.  Those without proper Cybersecurity protections in place open themselves up to identify theft, ransomware, intellectual property theft, financial fraud, and a plethora of others. In the corporate world, this is especially pertinent because businesses are in constant competition with each other and can resort to malicious tactics, like the aforementioned intellectual property theft, to gain an advantage. For large companies and corporations, this may involve hiring a team of cybersecurity experts to protect the businesses’ IP, finances, employee information, etc. This can be convoluted for companies that aren’t involved in Cybersecurity to handle. Thus, they turn toward businesses that specialize in Cybersecurity to remedy their security concerns. This, however, is where the main issue becomes prevalent.

In order to have effective Cybersecurity, there have to be proper Cybersecurity Professionals in place to protect the business. The demand for cyber security experts has skyrocketed because of this. This often incentivizes people to start up their own Cybersecurity businesses to provide enough supply for the market, as well as profit from it. There is also an influx of people going into Cybersecurity courses and schools to meet his demand as well. The impasse occurs when those students are attempting to transfer their knowledge from an academic setting to a corporate location. That transition to a different environment can prove to be difficult as the educational setting often focuses on teaching the students the foundational information but not how to apply that knowledge in practical instances. This transitional period can not only prove disheartening and frustrating to those entering the workforce but also worrying for their employers in the fast-paced corporate world. Employees who are struggling to apply their skills and are slowly completing tasks can be a financial loss for the company if this time period extends for too long. This fast-paced facet is especially pertinent in the Cybersecurity business. It is said that a cyber-attack occurs about every 39 seconds. So having experts who are fast-paced and knowledgeable is imperative to have an effective and lucrative Cybersecurity business. That’s where the concept of training and internships is presented. Training and internships create a bridge for Cybersecurity students between their academic environment and their future corporate environment. They are still learning the imperative, foundational Cybersecurity knowledge they need to know but are also exposed to a working environment where they simultaneously are applying that learned knowledge to real-world scenarios. Internships and training are lucrative opportunities for students as well as Cybersecurity businesses. The businesses get an influx of future employees that are trained to their specific standards in their desired settings, creating the ideal Cybersecurity expert for their team.

Creating a practical training course for potential Cybersecurity experts can be a profitable investment in the long run for a Cybersecurity business. However, it is still a pricey investment. While large companies can afford a significant investment, not every business starts out large or with enough investment finances to pay to train Cybersecurity students adequately. On top of not having the funds to train their employees, small companies that face the aforementioned issues with new hires end up on a roadblock. This is not only concerning for the businesses themselves but also for society as a whole. As previously stated, today’s organizations are heavily dependent on computer systems and the Internet. Thus, they are heavily reliant on Cybersecurity as well. If Cybersecurity businesses are struggling to hire and operate, that also means that Cybersecurity or society depends on is not as effective and efficient as it needs to be. This threatens the safety and function of everyone, from citizens to corporations to the governing bodies. More businesses being in the market creates demand for competition and innovation within those businesses so that they may be more lucrative. Without proper competition from other brands, the large Cybersecurity businesses that have more finances may become more stagnant in their approaches. This is dangerous because cyber environments are evolving at an exponential rate, and with it, the capabilities of those with malicious intentions. Society relies on the Cybersecurity facet of the market being fast-paced, lucrative, and competitive. Small businesses and start-ups not being able to properly and falling behind poses a threat to everyone.

Internships and training opportunities bridged that gap between academic environments and corporate environments and created a mutually beneficial arrangement in the process. In order to bridge the gap that is present in small businesses, there needs to be another solution that is similarly mutually beneficial.  This is where our company comes in. We specialize in creating effective and replicable Virtual Reality Cybersecurity Training. Virtual Reality is a term used to describe the creation and usage of three-dimensional pictures or environments that the user can interact with in real-time. These digital spaces can be experienced through traditional devices, like cellphones or laptops, but can be enhanced using special equipment like headsets and sensors. When experienced through the more advanced hardware, virtual environments have proven to provide incredibly immersive experiences for the user. Though virtual reality is more commonly known through its usage regarding social media or video games, it is utilized in many other fields because of its immersive nature and transformative qualities. Industries such as tourism, architecture, real estate, retail, sports, and many others have utilized virtual reality’s capabilities to widen their scope and increase profits. Virtual reality is especially pertinent in education as it has given educators the tools to instruct their students through more immersive and entertaining means. For example, students simply reading or seeing pictures about Greco-Roman architecture is less of a learning experience than seeing the architecture in person. However, seeing Greco-Roman architecture in person is not a viable option for many students. Thus, visualizing the architecture through a digitized virtual reality provides an immersive enough experience for the concept to be implemented into the students’ knowledge while still remaining realistically accessible.

Virtual Reality training can be an effective tool to aid students in their learning. It can also be an effective tool to assist students in their training. The issue with students not being effectively trained before entering the workforce was that they were inefficient at learning how to apply their knowledge and perform their jobs. Because virtual reality can create immersive enough environments and interactions that are conducive to learning, they also can provide as an effective environment for students who need training but cannot do so under the traditional means due to a variety of accessibility issues. Our business specializes in creating and replicating these corporate Cybersecurity environments so that students who need proper training can do so through our programs. This doesn’t just prove beneficial to the students, however. This also proves useful for the small Cybersecurity businesses who can’t afford to allocate the proper time, funding, and expertise it necessitates to train those students.

Training proves to be the most expensive for smaller businesses because of their smaller scale. Since smaller businesses have fewer employees, the few employees they do need to work efficiently, as there are very few other employees to allocate the neglected duties to. When a business is trying to operate at an efficient rate while also training potential employees, their routine operations are disrupted, resulting in a loss in profits. This is compounded by the fact that when an employee is spending time training, they aren’t working, which means they aren’t generating profits for the business. This often results in smaller companies not investing enough finances into training because it can be a finance sinkhole. However, for the reasons listed previously, Cybersecurity businesses cannot afford not to train their employees properly. This impasse is resolved with our Virtual Reality Training Courses. Since we would be providing the students and potential employees with the training and the virtual environment, small Cybersecurity businesses would not have to disrupt their operations in order to have properly trained employees. They would not have to allocate another employee or a high-ranking member of the business to neglect their duties so that new employees can be taught.

Additionally, since our Virtual Reality Training is fully customizable, small businesses could request specific duties allocated to certain tasks or jobs that are in need of proper training. The small Cybersecurity business can pay for our Virtual Reality Training while not sacrificing their own efficiency and overall profits in order to employ effectively trained experts. This allows the company to grow and expand in a way that is more efficient and less convoluted than training the employees themselves.

One topic that may be perceived as an issue is that the Virtual Reality Training would not take place physically in the work environment. The work environment would be replicated into a 3D environment for the students and potential employees to operate in. This would mean that their training would be primarily remote. This may seem as inefficient to some because remote work education is perceived to be less effective than in-person learning. The primary example that is pointed to in defense of this argument is when students in the United States transitioned to online learning at the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic. Since, at the time, social distancing was a required implementation for every federal, state, and private sector, students were forced to abruptly end their education and transition to an entirely new learning environment. This heavily impacted their education as many students couldn’t prepare for the new learning environment and didn’t know how to function. Thus, many students’ academic performance dropped during this time period. However, several studies have been conducted to analyze Emergency Remote Learning in reference to the other more utilized remote learning methods like online, virtual, and traditional distance.

The other, more utilized methods of remote learning were explicitly designed to help students transition to online learning. They had proper provisions, structure, and interactivity to help students focus and retain the information the way they would if they were in a practical academic setting. When those remote learning methods were implemented, it seems those who did so knew the challenges students would face when trying to learn in an environment that was not conducive to education and created provisions to improve these issues. However, Emergency Remote Learning, in comparison, was sprung on a mass population of students without warning. There were no provisions in place to transition students from in-person education to remote education. There was nothing to remedy the fact that students no longer had an isolated area where they could focus solely on education. They were distracted, unprepared, confused, dejected, and left without structure due to the abrupt nature in which they were thrust into another learning environment. Our Virtual Learning Environment will replicate its’ method of education and training in a technique similar to the more utilized forms of remote learning. When properly implemented, these methods of instruction have proven to be effective learning tools.

Additionally, Virtual Reality has also been shown to bolster the education and information retention in those utilizing it to learn more about their field. When provided with the appropriate environment and sensory stimuli, Virtual Reality proved to reduce the rate at which employees would make errors and helped them make an efficient transition from the academic environment to a corporate environment. This is especially pertinent to those studying in the Cybersecurity field. Being able to explore their chosen field in a reflection of a practical setting improved their engagement and was an effective alternative for those who did not have access to the practical environment. When properly implemented and accommodated, Virtual Reality training proved to be effective in the same manner as in-person internships or training. Therefore, our business will take the proper steps to ensure that the learning environment is as accessible, applicable, and comprehendible to those utilizing the training.

The Virtual Reality Cybersecurity Training Company would primarily be a software company that, in certain circumstances, would utilize Virtual Reality hardware. We would be hired by Cybersecurity businesses in need of proper training for their employees or who want to train students who could be potential employees but cannot do so themselves. The Cybersecurity business that is hiring us would detail what environment they want to be replicated and what tasks they want the trainee to be taught. The businesses will also get to add any customizable details that pertain to their specific company if they want to further acclimate the trainee to work at their business by getting them used to a similar environment. However, we would also provide a basic standard training environment that can be altered depending on the job or tasks being replicated. The software developers that work at our training company would then develop the Virtual Environment software as replicable as possible. We would host the virtual environment on our hardware at our physical location and share the virtual environment with the respective trainees. The educational material would be provided through the Virtual Environment and the material provided by the Cybersecurity business. The trainees would be provided with the appropriate Virtual Reality course as well as an introductory course to help them acclimate to online training if they need such. Trainees would primarily operate remotely. This helps keeps down costs for us since we’d only have one size-appropriate location to host our computers and software developers if they choose to work in the office. Keeping costs low at the operation level helps keeps costs low for the Cybersecurity businesses that choose to hire us. This further solidifies our target audience as being small Cybersecurity businesses.

At the onset, we would primarily be a case-by-case business. We would develop or alter the Virtual Reality environments when businesses hire us. However, as we grow into a more profitable business, we will expand to a subscription-based model. This will be developed as we work with more businesses that choose to continue doing business with us. If they repeatedly hire us to utilize our services, this will prove more beneficial to them as they would potentially cost less for them in the long run. This also helps ensure that we have a stable and reoccurring customer base. We also could potentially grow with our customer base as when they grow and hire us to train for more roles; we’ll be able to provide more services with our growth. Additionally, as we grow, we could provide Virtual Reality headsets to these businesses to offer their trainees to utilize for their training. They would either be rented out by the small businesses or included in the cost of their Virtual Reality environments so that the trainees could get a more immersive and effective training experience. The headsets would only be implemented after we grow enough to offer them at a relatively low rate so that the small businesses that are our primary demographic can still afford the service.

As previously stated, Cybersecurity is necessary in order for our societies to function. Having Cybersecurity businesses generate innovation in order to compete in the market is necessary for Cybersecurity to evolve enough to properly protect computer systems. There are a plethora of facets of society that also depend on not only effective Cybersecurity but also are starting to implement virtual reality software and hardware to operate at a functional level.

Since the onset of the Coronavirus Pandemic, healthcare institutions have been seeing an uptick in cyber-attacks. With the combination of a global health crisis and the shift to people going primarily online due to social distance, more people have been turning to digital services and resources to get diagnoses, health advice, medication, etc. As a result, a lot of people had to enter private and sensitive information over the Internet and over the phone. This has caught the attention of malicious cyber attackers that seek to sell the profitable information or commit insurance fraud. Since 2020, ­­healthcare institutions have been swarmed with a plethora of cyberattacks and breaches. This put the lives and safety of patients and healthcare workers at risk. It is reported that most of the breaches are due caused by phishing attacks. Phishing attacks involve a cyber attacker sending an inconspicuous email to the victim that contains links, ransomware, viruses, or other malicious attacks. These emails are often opened by the healthcare workers themselves. Having safe and protected information in hospitals, as well as properly protecting healthcare workers, is imperative as they are a cornerstone to the safety of the general public. Thus, implementing effective Cybersecurity protections and methods is immensely significant.

Virtual Reality is starting to be implemented for usage in the healthcare sector. There was a study conducted to determine if the usage of a computer-based virtual reality colonoscopy simulation improved the interactions between patients and healthcare providers during colonoscopies. Although the circumstances under the study were limited, and these variables need to be utilized in a more practical setting in order to see its true effectiveness, the results of the study were promising. Eighteen medical school residents with no prior colonoscopy experience were either tasked with completing sixteen hours of colonoscopy experience through a virtual reality simulation, while others in the group of eighteen were not. After the tasked students were finished with their simulation, all of the students were then tasked with providing real-life colonoscopy appointments with patients. Both groups were evaluated based on their patient care. After evaluation, it was recorded that the group that received the training through the simulation necessitated much less assistance with patience than the students that had no prior training. Though the group with the simulation training had the obvious advantage, this study showed that virtual reality training has the potential to give those in training enough experience to perform with more proficiency than without it. If using virtual reality simulations is effective in training medical students, it could not only vastly improve their education; it also improves their experience with their field as they have much more room to make mistakes than the typical training, which involves studying under a practicing professional. This typical form of training is also uncomfortable for the patients that were being observed during an invasive medical procedure. If medical students can train more efficiently with virtual reality simulations, there is no need to create uncomfortable circumstances for patients.

There are several factors that need to be addressed in order to turn our innovation into a business. First, we need to figure out where to get our financial backing from. As previously stated, the demand for Cybersecurity has been steadily increasing as the dependence on computer systems has increased. Several critical infrastructures in our society require more efficient Cybersecurity in order to properly protect our citizens, and the demand for Cybersecurity professionals has exponentially increased. Due to this high demand and taking out a loan to start up our business, I strongly believe we will make a profit after starting the business and marketing it to our primary demographic, small Cybersecurity businesses. Marketing the company is crucial to it reaching our primary demographic and generating a customer base. Going by word of mouth, being involved at Cybersecurity events, reaching out to academic environments, and possibly receiving government assistance could aid our efforts in reaching small Cybersecurity businesses. After securing a small but strong customer base, we could advertise through them as well, as they’re likely to be involved in the Cybersecurity world as well, especially as they grow.

The core of any effective business is its employees. Employing those who are well-versed in software development and virtual environment implementation. Because we would start out as a small business ourselves, we’d need to ensure that we hire those who are professionals in their field. Since there are a plethora of business avenues that utilize virtual reality, we could essentially hire potential workers from many different fields, such as real estate, video game development, retail, social media, the tourism industry, and many more. Software developers, however, will need to be more meticulously selected, since their expertise, while still prevalent in many facets of the market, need to have their skills more refined in order for them to properly bolster the business.

We would need a human resources team. Even though we’d start out as a small business, human resources ensure that the relations between the workers are safe and amicable. Additionally, we also have plans to grow as a business, and as we grow, we’d need to employ more employees, which necessitates a human resource team even more. An HR team also handles the process of employee handling, from hiring to firing, and helps to secure employee relations in the business.

Since we are a business that could potentially handle the private information of other businesses, we’d need to implement a proper Cybersecurity team and protection system of our own. It’s been reiterated a plethora of times that every facet of society is dependent on Cybersecurity. This necessity being reflected in our own business serves to truly prove how important it is. Us having our own Cybersecurity team also further connects us to the Cybersecurity world and can help improve our marketing and outreach.

We’d need someone on our team that properly tests our product to ensure their validity, safety, and operation. It’s necessary to test for any health risks, like potential blindness issues, motion sickness, or epilepsy. Testing to ensure the virtual environments are operating as usual, haven’t shut down, are to the liking of the partnering businesses, and are conducive to the students, is a fundamental necessity to making sure the company is operating at efficiency.

Other necessities involve a central location that other businesses can refer to, where employees can travel to if they require a more focused work environment, and to store the computers that just the virtual environment. We’d also need a VPN for workers to utilize to work from home on work-assigned computers.

There are several methods we’d employ to ensure that our innovation is working as intended. First would be getting proper correspondence from the partnering Cybersecurity businesses as well as the students and trainees participating in the training program. Conducting interviews with the students during their training, after their training, and after they enter the workforce could help to see how they responded to the training and if it helped them retain the information. The training is meant to help transition them from an academic environment to a corporate one. If they feel efficiently prepared when entering the workforce to tackle their job with the information learned from school as well as the training from the virtual environment, that helps us to know if our training is effective. If they do not feel prepared, we’ll need to add improvements where we are lacking regarding the training. We’d also get correspondence from small Cybersecurity businesses. If they feel as if the employees they received after they paid for training are efficient and causing a net positive at the company, we’d have done our job efficiently. If they’re running into the problem of having to further train their employees so that they can perform their jobs efficiently, then we need to reevaluate our training or our environmental replication efficacy.

We’d also be able to implement a performance monitoring program in the virtual environment training to monitor the progress and training of the trainees. This program would help to visualize where each trainee is excelling or lacking in terms of their performance and for us to see if there is a pattern that reflects a fault in our program. This could help differentiate if it is just the trainee struggling with a specific issue or if it’s a pattern that lies within the ineffectiveness of the program.

This project has enabled me to learn a lot about the process of planning an innovation. It is simple to just generate an idea. However, dealing with the practicalities of bringing the idea to fruition, doing research to prove its validity, determining if it will be profitable in a saturated market, and building effective arguments to defend that idea are much more complicated and differentiates the innovators from the entrepreneurs. Proper entrepreneurship involves being willing to take risks and, as certain I am that this idea would be incredibly beneficial, starting a business, especially in a market that is not saturated with them, is an incredible risk. So many businesses, regardless of their innovation or necessity, fall under due to inefficient marketing, lack of financial responsibility, or even a mishandling of business finances. Looking into all that goes into just proposing a business, let alone starting one, has taught me that those who not only start a business but keep it running for years have discipline and tenacity that is the cornerstone of our society.

If I were to start this project again, I would focus more heavily on if my primary demographic was one I could profit off of. Initially, our target audience was college students in need of an alternative method of Cybersecurity training. I was so hyper-focused on the idea and trying to implement it that I wasn’t thinking about if our idea would be financially sustainable. Depending on college students to drive your profits is unreliable, and that required us to fundamentally shift our project in order to keep our same idea but still make a profit off of it. Through this shift, however, I learned a lot more about virtual reality, how intertwined Cybersecurity is in our day-to-day, and how alternative methods of training can cross many accessibility barriers.