A report released on Monday by the Maryland state government seeks to put the state at the center of the federal government's cybersecurity efforts. The report cites the presence of several federal agencies including the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the National Security Agency, as reasons why Maryland is the national leader in security the country's critical cyber infrastructures.
In addition to pledging support for the creation of innovative cybersecurity technologies and advancing cyber policies to position Maryland for enhanced national leadership, the report pledges to help develop a Maryland pipeline for new cybersecurity talent and workforce development. These efforts may focus on improving STEM (science, math, engineering and mathematics) education, and developing new scholarships and other honors to encourage students to remain in Maryland for college, increasing the chances that the students will stay in the state for future work. The report also proposes a review of the curriculum at two-year colleges or community colleges to develop a certificate program for cybersecurity, to create a pipeline of younger workers with the skills to fill technician jobs and to address some of the growing issues in cyber security.
Maryland also emphasized that new cybersecurity workforce challenges are sure to emerge in 2010, including a goal by the Obama administration to insource government work. These challenges will require the state to develop an academic cybersecurity curriculum for degree or certiiification at community colleges and four-year colleges, develop a skills gap analysis to identify specific training needs in cybersecurity work, retrain workers with obsolete skills in areas that are in high demand, create a public-private partnership jobs network for recruitment and training, and establish a relationship with the Defense Department's Cyber Corps program.
Brittany Ballenstedt
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
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