Category Archives: cybersecurity workforce

Cyber Command has cut hiring time for cybersecurity roles by nearly half, says DOD CISO

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Cyber Command has recently cut down the average amount of time it takes to hire someone by approximately 40 percent — 111 days to 44 days — under the Cyber Excepted Service program, according to the Department of Defense CISO Jack Wilmer. The CES program, intended to speed up cybersecurity candidate recruitment in the DOD through initiatives like allowing hiring managers to make direct hires, was originally authorized in 2016 by Congress. The CES also establishes market-based pay scales and allows hiring with or without public notification or vacancy announcements, both intended to decrease red tape in the Pentagons’ hiring process. Wilmer said the decrease has given the Department of Defense a leg up on private sector cybersecurity hiring. Since implementing the CES program, the Pentagon has seen fewer cases of candidates leaving DOD jobs on the table for the private sector. “That is a huge win,” Wilmer said while speaking Thursday at the 2019 Workforce […]

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With workforce in mind, bipartisan bill proposes incentives for cybersecurity education, and more

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The HACKED Act is actually about making sure people don’t get hacked. The bipartisan bill — with the full title “The Harvesting American Cybersecurity Knowledge through Education Act” — was introduced Tuesday by four senators who say it would boost cybersecurity education and expand workforce training. The legislation comes as the Trump administration, Congress and industry have all taken steps to boost the cybersecurity workforce through training, recruitment and retention. “America is facing serious cyberthreats every day in today’s increasingly connected world, yet there is a serious shortage of workers needed to confront this urgent challenge,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., one of the cosponsors and the Commerce Committee’s ranking member, said in a statement. “The bipartisan HACKED Act of 2019 would help address this by training cybersecurity educators and skilling American workers to do these jobs, as well as increasing coordination on these issues throughout the government.” The bill includes proposals to incentivize recruitment of […]

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15 major companies announce effort to tackle cybersecurity workforce recruitment issues

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Fifteen major companies, including the Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, and PwC, announced Wednesday they are joining together to change their cybersecurity job descriptions and requirements to attract more talent to the 3 million cybersecurity job openings that are expected to be available over the next two years. Specifically, the companies — which are part of the Aspen Cybersecurity Group — are focused on nixing requirements that candidates have four-year bachelor’s degrees and gender-biased job descriptions. “A bachelors degree is actually not a good proxy for whether you have the talent,” Chair of the Aspen Institute’s Cyber & Technology Program John Carlin told CyberScoop. “There’s plenty of talented people out there but we need to figure out better ways to identify them and train them.” The group, which also includes AIG, Cloudflare, the Cyber Threat Alliance, Duke Energy, IronNet, Johnson & Johnson, Northrop Grumman, Symantec, Unisys, and Verizon, came together over […]

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Government cyber reskilling programs are just getting started, federal CIO says

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Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent says she expects the government’s Cybersecurity Reskilling Academies to keep expanding over the next few years. As part of the Federal Chief Information Officer Council’s work to bolster the federal cyber workforce, the government has gone through two rounds of academies since last year. The first cohort had over 1,500 applications for just 25 slots. Counting the second round of applications, the academies have had more than 2,300 federal employees apply in all, Kent said at a Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity conference Wednesday. “That says something about the level of interest across the federal government,” Kent said. She added that agency feedback has been key to improving the federal cybersecurity workforce, with the administration focused on improving the skill level inside those agencies, particularly in those who primarily work outside of the tech sector. It’s “not to improve just our technology workforce, but our […]

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Do We Really Have a Cybersecurity Skills Gap: Time to Refocus the Hiring Process

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Is there a cybersecurity skills gap? Plenty of surveys and anecdotal evidence seem to say that’s the case. For example, an end-of-year survey of IT professionals conducted by ESG found that 53 percent of organizations reported a shortage of security s… Continue reading Do We Really Have a Cybersecurity Skills Gap: Time to Refocus the Hiring Process→

Benefits of a Multicultural Cybersecurity Workforce

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As was the case for the American workforce during World War II, the enormous dearth of talent in the cybersecurity industry presents unprecedented opportunities for women and minorities to fill the jobs gap. According to a new (ICS)2 study, “Inn… Continue reading Benefits of a Multicultural Cybersecurity Workforce→