Cyber-Scholar Program Needs Reform, DHS Task Force Says
Infrastructure advisors for the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) told the agency Tues. major cybersecurity challenges persist within govt. -- especially in education and workforce development. Preliminary findings from a DHS National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) report to be issued at the group’s Oct. meeting indicate that serious kinks must be worked out in the federal Cyber Corps (CC) program, a scholarship program for undergraduates and graduate students aimed at increasing the number of U.S. cybersecurity professionals.
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In exchange for a virtual full academic ride, CC students serve the govt. for 2 years after graduation. But departments that employ the most graduates, like the National Security Agency, have very little control over the country’s critical infrastructure, and the impact of the CC scholars’ presence is small, officials said. The graduates are prohibited from working with the private sector -- even a contractor on a govt. cybersecurity project -- and they can’t work for local or state govt. or first responders, either, the group said.
Problems exist with the scholars’ job placement process as well. When the CC scholarship was initially offered, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) worked with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to place students, but in recent years, the burden has shifted to the universities in the program. This has resulted in a “very difficult time for students to find actual placement inside agencies,” said Union Pacific’s Richard Holmes, who presented the findings to NIAC members. OPM and NSF have tried their hand at a variety of job fairs, but results have been discouraging. One fair held last year in D.C. drew 300 scholars to meet with agency recruiters but most remained jobless, analysis showed. Some agencies didn’t have the right jobs available for the students and others didn’t have the authority to offer positions to them. Security clearance is another roadblock. Students don’t obtain clearances until after they've obtained employment “so when they finally do go to work, they sit for months awaiting clearances,” noted Union Pacific Railroad’s Richard Holmes, who presented the findings to NIAC members.
The reports’ authors are still evaluating various recommendations to pass along to DHS and the Bush Administration, but several general suggestions were discussed at the meeting: (1) Every CC scholar should graduate with a uniform toolkit of skills and abilities in hand and should be allowed to work for the mandatory 2- year period in the private sector for contracting firms that contribute to federal projects. (2) The govt. needs to reevaluate the way funding for the program is put in place, and NSF in particular should seek approaches that give CC better leverage. (3) Regarding clearances, OPM should sponsor students during their last year of school, so when they arrive in the cybersecurity workforce, they can immediately go to work. (4) To deal with a shortage in trained cybersecurity faculty, schools should work with the private sector to provide sabbaticals and summer projects subsidized by NSF to allow the instructors to “tackle real world problems in critical infrastructure.”
The task force also noted hurdles in K-12 math and science education worth investigating, since the nation’s long term security is directly tied to the quality of the next generation workforce. The Administration has highlighted the problem in the “No Child Left Behind” program but the public has not embraced math and science education as a national priority. NIAC members said the govt. must find a way to create a public sense of urgency. “The ‘reading wars’ and the ‘math wars’ are counter productive and sapping resources away from the task of improving education,” the group argued.