Boston cybersecurity company Rapid7 is spending $1 million to create a foundation aimed at training more women and people of color for cybersecurity jobs, and providing high-quality, low-cost security tools for nonprofit groups and local government agencies.
“A million dollars is not going to fundamentally change how cybersecurity happens for the underserved and the underrepresented,” said Peter Kaes, executive director of the newly formed Rapid7 Cybersecurity Foundation and the company’s former general counsel. “But it’s a start.”
Rapid7 chief executive Corey Thomas serves as chair of the foundation, which has already donated $50,000 to the Institute for Security and Technology to support an effort to produce better, more affordable tools for fighting ransomware. The foundation also plans to work with groups like CompTIA, which develops training standards for high-tech fields, to increase training opportunities for Black, Hispanic, and female workers.
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Rapid7 makes corporate cybersecurity tools used by thousands of companies worldwide to detect hacker intrusions and test their networks and software for possible security flaws. The company posted a net loss of $146 million in 2021, but its revenues have been surging by an average of 28 percent a year over the past five years.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at hiawatha.bray@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeTechLab.