Idaho Falls' Cybersecurity Firm Built Around Your Workforce
The Cyber Workforce Center™ is based in Idaho Falls, Idaho — and our roots run deep here. Our methodology was developed through work at Idaho National Laboratory, one of the nation's most respected critical infrastructure research institutions. Co-founders Dr. Shane Stailey and Ralph Ley bring over 30 years of combined industry, education, and national security experience to every engagement. Organizations across eastern Idaho and beyond rely on CWC™ because the work is rigorous, the deliverables are actionable, and the people behind it have operated at the highest levels of the field.
"The depth of experience CWC™ brings to the table is something we hadn't found anywhere else — and the fact that they're right here in Idaho Falls made the partnership that much easier."
From utilities and industrial operators to government agencies and private sector organizations, CWC™ has become the go-to resource for Idaho Falls leaders who need cybersecurity workforce guidance they can trust and act on. When the stakes are high and the margin for error is low, experience and proximity matter.
Closing the Gap Between Your People and Your Risk
Most organizations protect their systems. Few invest equally in the people responsible for operating them. CWC™ exists to fix that. We apply workforce engineering to cybersecurity risk — identifying capability gaps, quantifying their business impact, and building the roadmap to close them. The result is an organization where security isn't just an IT function; it's a shared, measurable responsibility at every level. That shift is what turns a reactive security posture into a resilient one.
"We finally had a way to show leadership exactly where our workforce risk lived — and put a number on it. That changed every conversation we had after."
We measure our success not by the volume of assessments completed, but by whether organizations come out of each engagement with clearer priorities, stronger accountability, and a workforce that is visibly better prepared than before. That standard keeps us honest — and keeps our clients coming back.
Every Other Firm Starts With Technology. We Start With People.
CWC™ is one of the few cybersecurity organizations in Idaho — and nationally — that treats workforce risk as a primary discipline, not an afterthought. We go beyond role-level assessments to analyze risk at the task level, translate findings into financial and operational language executives can act on, and deliver outputs aligned to NIST, NERC/CIP, and ISO frameworks your organization already answers to. Clients consistently say the same thing: CWC™ told them something no one else had — and showed them exactly what to do about it.
"Other assessments gave us a list of problems. CWC™ gave us a ranked action plan with the business case already built in."
There are no generic recommendations here. Every finding is specific to your organization's roles, responsibilities, and risk environment — which is why the work lands differently than anything most clients have seen before. In a field crowded with look-alike reports, that specificity is what makes the difference between a deliverable that gets filed and one that actually gets used.
How We Got Here
The Cyber Workforce Center was developed from work originally started at Idaho National Laboratory — one of the U.S. Department of Energy's premier national laboratories and a leader in critical infrastructure cybersecurity research. Our founders bring that institutional rigor directly to your organization.
Ralph Ley leads the National & Homeland Security Workforce Development Program at INL — building the foundational research on cybersecurity talent gaps in industrial and critical infrastructure environments.
CWC founders brief Congress on cyber workforce needs, organize Industrial Cybersecurity Community of Practice workshops, and begin shaping national standards for workforce development in critical sectors.
The CyberTRUE™ platform is developed — codifying the workforce engineering process into a scalable, standards-aligned methodology that extends NIST NICE into task-level workforce intelligence.
Dr. Shane D. Stailey and Ralph Ley co-found the Cyber Workforce Center — bringing national laboratory rigor, 30+ combined years of experience, and the CyberTRUE™ platform to organizations of all sizes.
Dr. Shane Stailey
President & Co-Founder
DCS-IA Credential
With over 30 years in industry and 12 years in education, Dr. Stailey brings a rare dual perspective to the challenges facing today's cyber teams. His work focuses on helping organizations and the people inside them grow stronger through smarter workforce strategies — combining academic rigor with deep operational experience.
- 30+ years industry experience across cybersecurity and technology leadership
- 12 years in higher education — bridging academic and operational cybersecurity
- Specializes in workforce strategy, human factor risk, and organizational resilience
- DCS-IA (Doctor of Cybersecurity — Information Assurance) credential
Ralph Ley
CEO & Co-Founder
Former INL Program Director
Formerly the Director of the National & Homeland Security Workforce Development Program Office at Idaho National Laboratory, Ralph Ley has spent his career at the intersection of national security and workforce strategy. His initiatives have shaped the nation's industrial cybersecurity talent pipeline at the highest levels.
- Former Director, National & Homeland Security Workforce Development — Idaho National Laboratory
- Briefed U.S. Congress on cybersecurity workforce needs for critical infrastructure
- Organized Industrial Cybersecurity Community of Practice workshops nationally
- Led national talent pipeline initiatives for ICS and OT security sectors
Empowering People. Securing Success.
Our motto is not just a tagline — it's the standard every engagement is held to. Empowering people and securing success are the two pillars that every deliverable, every recommendation, and every client relationship is built on. When your workforce is stronger, your organization is safer. That belief drives everything we do.
Technology is a tool. The person operating it is the variable. We build every strategy around humans first — because that's where risk originates and where prevention is most effective.
National laboratory-caliber methodology, translated into language that any leader can understand and act upon. Complexity is our job to manage — not yours to decode.
Cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility — not just the CISO's. We build cultures and structures where that shared accountability is real, not just stated in a policy document.
Threats evolve. Organizations grow. A static assessment becomes a liability. We design every engagement with ongoing adaptability built in — not as an upsell, but as a principle.
Opinions don't protect organizations. Quantified, scored, financially-translated risk data does. We never deliver recommendations without the evidence that supports them.
CWC™ engagements are built on genuine partnership with key stakeholders — industry, government, insurers, and academia — because workforce security requires a whole-ecosystem view.