U.S. faces shortage of cybersecurity workers

December 23, 2009 — 10:18am ET | By Judi Hasson

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Cyber Command
U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team
cybersecurity
DHS

There's a shortage of computer security workers that can help the federal government fight the growing number of security attacks targeting its computer systems, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The lack of skilled workers is becoming so intense that agencies and contractors are increasingly engaged in a bidding war for the best talent. It is driving up salaries and making it harder for agencies to have the best talent on staff to handle these threats. Some cybersecurity employees are commanding more than $100,000 a year with just three years experience, according to the newspaper.

It couldn't come at a worse time. The Department of Homeland Security plans to hire 1,000 IT staff in the next three years to deal with computer security. The Pentagon is trying to staff a new Cyber Command to handle offensive and defensive computer-security missions, and the number of cyberattacks just keeps increasing.

The Government Accountability Office estimates that the number of scans, probes and attacks reported to DHS's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team has more than tripled--from 5,500 in 2006 to nearly 17,000 in 2008.

"We know how we can be penetrated," said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security. "We don't know how to prevent it effectively."

Complicating the problem is that most federal IT managers don't even know what kind of skills are essential, according to Karen Evans, information technology administrator in the Bush administration.

While there are programs being developed to increase the number of computer science students, including the National Science Foundation's Scholarship for Service program (which pays for up to two years of college in exchange for an equal number of years of federal service), the program has placed fewer than 1,000 students since its inception in 2001.

For more on lack of cybersecurity talent:
- see this Washington Post article article