Hack The Box announced findings from a Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting, examining the potential business benefits of investing in cybersecurity workforce development. As artificial intelligence reshapes the cybersecurity landscape, organizations are reassessing how they train, evaluate, and retain security professionals. The study explores the potential economic impact of workforce development initiatives and their role in helping businesses strengthen cybersecurity skills and readiness.
Forrester Consulting interviewed Hack The Box customers across financial services, government, technology and professional services sectors and used their experiences to construct a composite organization with a more than 300-person cybersecurity workforce.
Over three years, the composite organization realized $1.2 million in benefits compared with $285,000 in costs, resulting in a net present value of $939,000, a 330% return on investment and a payback period of less than six months. The composite organization also achieved:
- Reduced Breach Exposure: A 50% reduction in escalation probability associated with earlier threat detection and shorter attacker dwell times.
- More Effective Incident Response: A 50% improvement in mean time to acknowledge (MTTA) and 30% improvement in mean time to resolution (MTTR) for incident response teams.
- Faster Onboarding: A 35% improvement in onboarding efficiency, helping new hires apply skills faster in real-world security environments.
- Improved Talent Retention: A 4% reduction in cybersecurity workforce attrition, supported by ongoing hands-on learning opportunities and team-based activities.
- Greater Penetration Testing Efficiency: A 50% improvement in penetration testing efficiency, helping teams complete assessments more efficiently while reducing quality review effort.
- Expanded Cybersecurity Workforce Development: Structured skills development through HTB’s hands-on learning and certification pathways drove a 20% increase in annual cybersecurity certifications.
“The question we hear most often is how many cybersecurity jobs AI will replace,” said Haris Pylarinos, CEO and founder of Hack The Box. “The more important question is whether teams are prepared to use AI effectively. AI amplifies the capabilities of the people using it, which is why readiness matters. This study shows what happens when organizations treat readiness as an ongoing discipline, one that’s built, practiced and measured over time, rather than something addressed only when it’s time to renew a certification.”
The head of IT security at a financial services company said, “Dwell time directly correlates with breach cost, and even marginal improvements can prevent high-six-figure impacts in regulated environments.”
The study findings come at a time when AI is increasing the speed and scale of both cyber attacks and cyber defense. While the TEI analysis focused on measurable workforce and operational outcomes, its findings also underscore the critical role of human expertise in directing, validating and safely applying AI within security workflows.
“I think it makes us faster to our response. It makes us better at looking at what the attacker’s doing. We’re fast. We know the right places to look because we know what an attacker would be looking to do. So I’d say we’re better at our job, we’re faster at our job, and we’re more efficient,” said the Head of Global Cyber Incident Response at a professional services firm interviewed for the study.
Organizations can also use HTB’s new ROI calculator to see how the study’s findings could apply to their own workforce. By entering their own information, they can look at the potential impact based on the study’s methodology and assumptions. To access the ROI calculator, click here.
For a more in-depth look at the findings, join HTB CMO Christine Bartlett and guest speaker, Forrester Principal Analyst Jess Burn, for The Economics of Cyber Workforce Readiness, a 30-minute fireside chat discussing the study’s methodology, key findings and implications for security and business leaders. The conversation will focus on what drove the study’s modeled 330% ROI and what those findings could mean for organizations evaluating their own workforce readiness. Access the webinar here.
The study also highlighted broader organizational benefits that interviewees associated with HTB, including stronger collaboration across security teams, greater visibility into workforce capabilities and skill gaps, and a more engaging environment for continuous learning.
Forrester Research separately named HTB a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Cybersecurity Skills and Training Platforms, Q1 2026 with the highest possible scores in 13 criteria, including agentic AI readiness.
The full study, The Total Economic Impact of Hack The Box, is now available.
For more information, visit hackthebox.com
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About the Study
The Total Economic Impact™ study was commissioned by Hack The Box and conducted by Forrester Consulting. It is based on interviews with seven decision makers with experience using Hack The Box, whose experiences were aggregated into a single composite organization. Financial figures are three-year, risk-adjusted present values. TEI is a methodology developed by Forrester Research.
