U.S. Still Lacks Cybersecurity Educational Standards, Say Cyber Experts
U.S. cybersecurity training programs lack a uniform body of knowledge from which the next generation of cyberdefenders can learn, speakers said Thursday at a homeland security conference in Washington sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. And cybersecurity recruitment remains far below the increasing demand, they said. The solution is spending more time and money on cyber educational programs and encouraging more collaboration with the private sector, the experts said.
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"A good place to start is developing standard training requirements for the future cyber workforce, said Col. George Lamont, a director at the U.S. Cyber Command. Currently, the U.S. military matches the knowledge skills and capabilities of its members with the military’s current training development categories, he said. Lamont conceded that doing so was no easy task and that the U.S. needs to come up with a better mechanism for recruiting and educating future cyber defenders.
U.S. cyber defense would definitely benefit the most from a common body of knowledge of essential skill sets, said Alan Carswell, chair of the cybersecurity and information assurance department at the University of Maryland University College. Developing such a resource would be the “holy grail” for educational program development in cybersecurity, he said. “The American public spends more money on astrology then we do on educating students on cybersecurity education,” said Rich Marshall, director of global cybersecurity management for the National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security. “If we don’t reverse that trend our future is going to be bleak,” he said. Marshall emphasized the need for more scholarships, funding and federal training programs that educate young students with essential skills for cyber defense.
Federal collaboration with the private sector must continue to be an essential component of U.S. cyber defense training, said Riley Repko, senior service executive for the Air Force. “Why can’t we partner with the private sector to build some sort of framework that lets us answer the requirements questions?” asked Repko. If hackers are the snipers of the cyber battlefield then it is essential that the U.S. figure out how to get one step ahead of them, said Repko. The best way to do that is to leverage the skills of the private sector, he said. The military recognizes that partnerships with companies and individuals in the private sector is key to their dominance in the cyber domain, said Lamont. “The private sector has tremendous talent and this is a domain that requires a team approach,” said Lamont. “No single organization can dissolve the cybersecurity threats that we face. This will bring us all together,” he said.