Cyber Plan Invests in Workforce

The White House on Tuesday unveiled the unclassified version of its Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, the government's plan to secure public and private sector computer networks. Availability of the plan, which was announced by White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, consists of 12 major priorities, including building a top-notch cybersecurity workforce.

The initiative outlines the importance of creating a national cybersecurity education strategy, similar to an effort to upgrade math and science education in the 1950s, to meet the daunting challenge of creating a pipeline a technologically-skilled and cyber-savvy workers for the future. Existing cybersecurity training and personnel develop programs are limited in focus and lack unity of effort, the CNCI states.

"While billions of dollars are being spent on new technologies to secure the U.S. government in cyberspace, it is the people with the right knowledge, skills and abilities to implement those technologies who will determine success," the initiative states. "However there are not enough cybersecurity experts within the federal government or private sector to implement the CNCI, nor is there an adequately established federal cybersecurity career field."

The initiative also includes plans to develop and implement a governmentwide cyber counterintelligence plan, largely by expanding counterintelligence education and awareness and workforce development programs, increasing employee awareness of the cyber counterintelligence threat and increasing counterintelligence collaboration across government.

Schmidt noted at the conference that the government has been making great progress towards creating an international awareness campaign to promote cybersecurity. The White House has pulled together an interagency working group to look at this area, he said. The working group has included efforts by the Office of Personnel Management and the Defense Department to examine how to create a top-notch cybersecurity workforce, and efforts by the Homeland Security Department to create a national workforce training strategy and a national cybersecurity awareness campaign, Schmidt said.

"We're not going to wind up beating our adversaries because they're weak ... we'll beat them because we will become stronger," Schmidt said. "We'll develop stronger technology, train and equip a better cadre of security professionals that understand this issue to become our critical assets and become more resilient."