NSF launching grants for cybercorps
The National Science Foundation is expected to release applications next month for grants that would fund the Federal Cyber Services program designed to train the next generation of digital defenders
The National Science Foundation is expected to release applications next
month for grants that would fund the Federal Cyber Services program designed
to train the next generation of digital defenders.
The NSF grants would be available to colleges and universities, which
would use the money to award scholarships to students to study information
assurance. These students would receive the scholarships in exchange for
full-time employment with a federal agency upon graduation. The students
would help protect the government's systems from cyberattack.
NSF hopes to announce by September or October which schools will receive
the grants and hopes to award the actual student scholarships by January
2001, said Shirley Malia, program manager for education and training with
the government's Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, speaking at the
FOSE conference.
Malia said plans also are under way to establish a virtual nationwide
network of training centers that offer information assurance courses. The
courses would match a set of competencies for information assurance professionals
that the Office of Personnel Management is developing. The hope is that
agencies would use these centers to keep their cybersecurity workers trained.
"If we don't keep the skills of information assurance [workers] up-to-date,
we are extremely vulnerable," Malia said.
The Cyber Services and virtual training network projects are dependent
on fiscal 2001 funding to proceed, Malia said.
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