DHS Team to Evaluate Cyber Workforce

The Homeland Security Department has stood up a special task force to evaluate the needs within the federal and private sector cybersecurity workforce.

Jeffrey Neal, chief human capital officer at DHS, told Wired Workplace on Monday that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano last month directed the establishment of a team of people to begin looking at cybersecurity workforce issues, including current and future workforce needs, hiring and training. The team, which includes professionals from the CHCO office, the National Protection and Programs Directorate and some DHS subcomponents, also will evaluate whether colleges and universities with cybersecurity-related degree programs are producing graduates with the right kinds of skills for both federal and private sector jobs, he said.

"At this point, it's more in the learning phase," Neal said. "But we're expecting to move out of that learning phase very quickly because we view this as such a rapidly evolving field and we don't want to get behind."