Cyber local funding success

We're pleased to announce that Hacktonics has successfully received funding from Innovate UK's Cyber Local 2025-26 scheme (again!) to Build the OT Penetration Testing Talent Pipeline in the South West. We are one of 20 projects funded under the scheme this year which will see us increase the tooling in our LINICS platform, further develop our hands-on training offering, as well as continue our free regional bootcamps to support skills development in OT pentesting. 

Operational Technology (OT) is used extensively in critical infrastructures, driven by industrial control systems (ICS). The cyber skills shortage is acute when it comes to OT and, even more so, for OT pentesting. Those aiming to forge a career in OT pentesting require hands-on training on the specialist equipment utilised in ICS as well as access to suitable tools and learning resources to develop their skills. These training tools and resources are in limited supply and simulations offer a poor alternative to develop the skills needed by OT security professionals, in general, and pentesters, in particular 

In a previous Cyber Local project delivered by Hacktonics earlier in 2025, we released LINICS, our free Linux-based distribution for OT security professionals, providing the community with a suite of tools, mapped to Mitre ATT&CK for ICS, for security analysis and testing. In this new project, we will further augment these resources developing learning resources for hands-on experience of end-to-end pentesting contexts including new tooling that we will develop and integrate into LINICS. We will also further extend our specialist training boxes to provide an additional in-person experience to those aiming to upskill or further develop their skills on OT pentesting. 

We will deliver four workshops in Bristol, Bath, Cheltenham and Exeter early in 2026 to provide pentesting training to attendees using the resources developed, our training boxes and LINICS to upskill the local workforce in the South West. We will announce dates for these workshops later this year, watch this space!  

If you’d like to know more about how we can help your company meet its OT / ICS Security workforce needs, get in touch: contact@hacktonics.io