DHS Releases Cyber Blueprint

The Homeland Security Department earlier this week released a blueprint for managing and protecting the nation against cybersecurity threats. Not surprisingly, one aspect of the strategy includes investing in the cybersecurity workforce.

The plan -- the Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future -- was released Dec. 12 and aims to better protect critical information infrastructure and build a stronger cyber ecosystem for the future. More specifically, the blueprint includes efforts to provide specialized and continuing security training to cybersecurity professionals, including training that allows them to design, build and operate IT systems that are "fundamentally secure and resilient."

The blueprint also includes efforts to create a "common body of knowledge" for cybersecurity workers, particularly through increased classroom-based and immersive learning environments as well as through rotational assignments of personnel between the public and private sectors. The plan also focuses on the development and use of capability and skills maturity models, which describe the general and technical skills necessary at various levels for cybersecurity work.

DHS also plans to build up both the public and private cybersecurity workforce as part of the plan, in part by helping to develop a rigorous cybersecurity and software assurance curriculum through the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education. The agency also emphasizes incentives like scholarships, grants, subsidies and tax incentives for cybersecurity workers as part of the plan.

Finally, the blueprint focuses on improving recruitment and retention of cyber workers through faster hiring, challenging assignments, structured career paths and employee satisfaction surveys.

"The increasing volume and sophistication of cyber exploitation demands heightened situational awareness, secure implementation of technology, coordinated incident response, demonstrated resilience in critical functions and a professionalized cybersecurity workforce that is dynamically managed," the blueprint states.