Feds face critical shortage of cybersecurity experts

A report released Wednesday by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization, has found a troubling shortage of highly skilled cybersecurity professionals in federal agencies. The group argues that the government will not be able to effectively counter the growing cyber threat, one with national security implications, without upgrading the workforce.

The nonprofit organization said there is fragmented leadership, with no government-wide strategic plan in place on the talent needs. No official could even give the Partnership an accurate count of cybersecurity jobs in the federal government, and no one had accurate information on how much government work is done by outside contractors.

My guess is that in many agencies, contractors dominate the scene. The report said federal job classifications are outdated for IT security, with one computer engineering job category last updated 20 years ago before the Internet was a fact of everyday life.

The study said there is no career path for IT security professionals, no effective certification system for IT employees, and lots of roadblocks caused by a lengthy and hard to navigate federal hiring process.   

The group notes that President Obama has pledged that the now vulnerable government computer networks will be "secure, trustworthy and resilient." But without a dedicated, high-trained and well-managed government IT workforce, the report said, that promise will be in jeopardy.

This highly disturbing report by an outside group only fuels the urgency to get the federal government up to speed on cybersecurity and to put in place qualified personnel to deal with a growing threat.

For more on cyber workforce woes:
- see the Partnership's report