Applied research
Study emerging threats, technologies, operational methods, and the changing relationship between people and tools.
AboutNCRF / 01
A foundation for readiness.
NCRF connects education, research, and realistic exercise so that people, teams, and institutions are better prepared for a changing cyber environment.
Our mission
NCRF advances cyber readiness through education, applied research, and realistic exercises that develop operational capability, improve the evidence available to the field, and strengthen cyber resilience in the public interest.
01Why NCRF exists
Capability has to keep pace with the environment.
Digital systems support public institutions, businesses, and daily life. The people and teams responsible for those systems need more than knowledge: they need opportunities to practice, perform, and adapt.
NCRF exists to connect parts of the readiness ecosystem that too often operate separately. Research keeps exercises current. Exercises turn education into experience. Evidence from performance helps the field improve people, programs, and technology.
How NCRF approaches readiness02What the foundation supports
Research, programs, and evidence working together.
NCRF's role is to make strong readiness work possible and durable—not to become a school, a credentialing body, or a single kind of program.
Exercise-based programs
Support competitions, simulations, and other environments where knowledge becomes practice and performance can be observed.
Readiness evidence
Use what exercises reveal to inform education, workforce capability, technology, and the design of future programs.
Program stewardship
Give consequential programs a stable institutional home and the relationships they need to serve the public over time.
03A current definition
Readiness is always readiness for the conditions at hand.
Threats change. Technology changes. The work itself changes. NCRF treats adaptation as part of readiness, not something that happens after it.
That is why emerging technologies—including AI—belong in the foundation's work alongside cyber education and workforce development. New tools can close some capability gaps while creating new operational demands. Both have to be understood and exercised.
04Founding leadership
Experience from inside the work.
Alex LevinsonFounder
Alex entered the cybersecurity competition community as a CCDC competitor and the 2011 U.S. Cyber Challenge national champion, then moved into building the environments in which others compete. Since 2012, he has served on NCCDC's core Red Team, including as infrastructure lead. He also co-founded the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition, led scoring for the U.S. Cyber Challenge, and created open-source offensive-security and competition infrastructure tools. Most recently, Alex led security at Scale AI; earlier roles include senior red-team consulting at Lares. Alex speaks at industry conferences about his industry-leading research at the nexus of AI and cybersecurity.
05The organization
What NCRF is.
NCRF is a nonprofit foundation built to advance cyber readiness through education, applied research, realistic exercises, and the stewardship of programs such as NCCDC.
The foundation works at the point where research becomes practice: studying emerging threats and technologies, supporting programs that turn education into experience, and using what those programs reveal to improve future capability.
NCRF is pursuing recognition of exemption under section 501(c)(3). Recognition is pending, so NCRF does not currently represent that contributions are tax-deductible. Its board, governing documents, and institutional partnerships will be published as they are finalized.