Network Security News

U.S. cybersecurity effort understaffed, is cyber czar appointment imminent?

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Federal cybersecurity initiatives are hampered by a shortage of skilled IT personnel, as well as a lack of leadership, planning and coordination among agencies, according to a new report. Meanwhile, several reports indicate President Obama may be ready to name a "cyber czar" in the near-term.

Despite a high-level cybersecurity review ordered by the Obama administration within its first 100 days, Obama has yet to find a point person to lead the effort.

Forbes.com cited unnamed cybersecurity insiders as saying that the administration has offered the cyber czar job to at least three people who have turned it down. Former Virginia Senator Tom Davis, now a consultant for Deloitte, announced last month that he wouldn't take the cyber czar job, according to Forbes.

The staffing problem extends throughout the government, as highly-skilled IT professionals are snapped up by private companies, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service (PPS) and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Max Stier, president and CEO of PPS, said that a lack of cybersecurity talent is a major problem for the government, in calling for "a vibrant, highly trained and dedicated federal cybersecurity workforce."

Fragmentation and uncoordinated leadership and an insufficient pipeline of skilled network security professionals, the PPS report says, has hamstrung U.S. efforts to defend against cyberattacks.