Cyber Workers Need Training

A new report by Cisco and (ISC)2 highlights the importance of training and obtaining professional certifications to current and future federal information security workers, particularly as chief information security officers increasingly move into more managerial and policy-focused roles.

The report, released on Thursday, found that while 63 percent of federal chief information security officers are satisfied with their jobs, half of them view their jobs as evolving into more managerial and policy-related roles. As a result, many CISOs rely much more heavily on a well-trained and experienced workforce to handle the important technical tasks, the study found.

As the roles of CISOs and the information security workforce change, the ability to train up workers will be key, many respondents noted. Sixty-eight percent said they have adequate resources for training employees, but equally important to them are professional certifications, which more than 70 percent ranked as high or very high in importance when hiring or promoting employees. A similar number believe that security certifications should be mandatory for security professionals across government, the study found.

Meanwhile, CISOs plan to use Scholarship for Service -- a program that grants scholarships in exchange for federal service in the information security field -- as one strategy for recruiting and hiring young information security workers, according to the survey. For example, 44 percent of CISOs expect to hire one to five SFS students; 12 percent will hire more than six; while another 44 percent do not plan to take advantage of this resource.

In terms of hiring more experienced workers, CISOs estimate that contractor conversions and the private sector will make up 30 percent of their hires in the near future, with a similar number coming from internal sources, the report states.