Alec Hall served for 28 years in the U.S. Air Force, holding nearly a dozen network infrastructure and security roles, based all over the world, and that experience culminated in Alliance Cyber, the Cocoa-based cybersecurity company he founded in 2021.
"I had a wide exposure to cybersecurity through the Air Force," he says. "If there was any job related to securing networks, I probably did it at some point."
Today, about half of Alliance Cyber's customers are companies that have contracts with government agencies and have to meet stringent data-security standards. The other half are nonprofits for whom the company does pro bono work "to help keep them cyber-secure," Hall says, "because they don't have high IT budgets, and it keeps their money with their mission."
In 2023, Hall established the philanthropic Alliance Cyber Gives Foundation, which provides grants to schools, offers "cyber safety" training for seniors, and partners with veteran advocacy groups to assist former military personnel as they transition into the civilian workforce. That dedication to serving the public good, along with Alliance Cyber's pro bono work, resulted in Hall being named national Vetrepreneur of the Year by the Military Friendly program, which encourages private-sector businesses to hire veterans.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the last stop for Hall in his military career, and he says he intentionally chose nearby Cocoa as Alliance Cyber's headquarters because he thought it would be a boon to the community.
"We did our research," Hall says. "It was an underserved community that was economically challenged and didn't have technology jobs. Although we're not big and employing hundreds of people, we thought that if we plant our flag here, eventually, if we do grow, we can help support the local economy."
With only eight employees, Alliance Cyber is a lean organization, but Hall says that fuels his "passion for small businesses." He adds, "I value the entrepreneurial spirit of founders. So many of our clients are small and medium-sized businesses. I've found that a lot of my peers in the industry have a cutoff for minimum number of seats, or minimum value of the contract, before they will help folks. That's not who I am. A solo entrepreneur needs just as much assistance as an L3Harris."