Preparing the Pipeline: The U.S. Cyber Workforce for the Future

Authors

David J. Kay, Center for Technology and National Security Policy, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University
Terry J. Pudas, Center for Technology and National Security Policy, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University
Brett Young, Center for Technology and National Security Policy, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University

Files

Description

In 2008, the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative listed “expanded cyber education” as one of its key recommendations. In 2009, the Partnership for Public Service produced a report stating that the current pipeline of cybersecurity workers into the government was inadequate.¹ In the same year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that the military was “desperately short of people who have the capabilities [to operate in cyberspace].”² And in 2011, the Inspector General of the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that 35 percent of the special agents investigating national security cyber-intrusion cases lacked necessary training and technical skills.³ Nonetheless, the U.S. Government and private sector still seek to increase their online operations and dependency in spite of these shortcomings. An expert at the Atlantic Council of the United States sums up this problem: “cyber workforce management efforts resemble a Ferris wheel: the wheel turns on and on . . . we move, but around and around, never forward.”⁴

Document Type

Policy Brief

Publication Date

8-2012

Publication

Defense Horizons

Publisher

National Defense University Press

City

Washington, DC

Recommended Citation

Kay, David J.; Pudas, Terry J.; and Young, Brett, "Preparing the Pipeline: The U.S. Cyber Workforce for the Future" (2012). Defense Horizons. 13.
https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/defense-horizons/13