Last summer, experts called on the public sector to adopt a more skills-based approach to hiring the talent it sorely needs to address gaps in the cybersecurity workforce.
During testimony at a June 22 House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection hearing, Will Markow, vice president of applied research at Lightcast, likened the government’s shortfall of cyber talent to “missing one-third of an army.”
Noting that close to 500,000 new skilled cybersecurity workers would be needed to meet employer demand, Markow urged Congress, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and the federal government as a whole to strengthen the cyber talent pipeline by becoming “an exemplar for innovative, skills-based cybersecurity hiring practices.”
During recent remarks at the Community College of Baltimore County, Essex, new National Cyber Director Harry Coker offered a glimpse into the federal government’s strategy for expanding the cyber talent pool, which includes attracting a more varied slate of candidates with the requisite skills and experience, and puts less emphasis on education and degrees.
“This year, you will see a series of cyber hiring sprints to fill vacancies across the federal enterprise and bring more folks from diverse backgrounds into federal cyber jobs,” Coker told the audience during a Jan. 11 event at the Baltimore-based institution. “So, we’re tackling how the federal government can hire cyber talent quickly, bring in diverse talent and remove barriers to working in cyber on federal contracts.”
Cybersecurity “isn’t some far away fight,” he noted. “There’s a lot at stake for our national security, for our economic security, for our economic security and for every community in this nation.”
To secure American cyberspace, Coker stressed the need to make cyber jobs more available and more attainable “for groups that traditionally haven’t been recruited.
“There are a lot of ways that people talk about diversity in the workforce,” he continued. “But here’s my take. To achieve the best mission outcomes, we need the best possible team.”
Putting that team together requires training more people in technical fields, and it means providing them with more ways to join the government ranks, Coker said, noting that these talented individuals could come from a number of backgrounds. For example:
- A veteran transitioning to civilian life, looking for additional technical training, “so they can continue protecting the American people”
- A mother returning the workforce after raising young kids, seeking a career that plays on her strengths, such as problem solving, while allowing her to frequently work remotely
- A community college student who joins an organization through an apprenticeship, and in the process finds a career that offers them a profound sense of purpose
“The only way we can defend the digital systems that lay the foundation for our modern way of life,” Coker said, “is to be sure that every American and people from every community have a pathway into a cyber-based career.”
Coker also referenced President Biden’s National Cybersecurity Strategy, describing the 35-page text as a “bold document with many lines of efforts and objectives” that focus on “shifting the burden of securing cyberspace to those most capable to bear it.”
That document also “challenges us to build a cyber workforce ready to meet the demands of this decisive decade—to focus on people.”
This effort is well underway, according to Coker.
“We have started by making sure that the federal government is leading by example and that we have the cyber talent we need to protect the systems that underpin all of our work and the systems that support the American people,” he said. “We are aggressively seeking to fill vacant cyber positions across the federal government.”
29 January 2024
Category
HR News Article