US / Homeland Security to hire 600 cybersecurity pros

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, acting on the recommendation of the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force on Cyberskills, said at a Washington Post cybersecurity forum that DHS wants to hire at least 600 cyber experts, analysts, IT specialists and people who are familiar with coding.

As a number of cyber experts have noted, however, while this may be a new initiative, it is not a new goal. James Lewis, senior fellow and program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said on a different panel at the same forum that similar hiring efforts have been under way for several years, with limited success.

Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller reported that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) “found in November 2011 that nearly every agency experienced difficulty in defining and hiring cyber workers.”

There are several reasons for the difficulty, experts say, but none of them have to do with a lack of supply. They say there are talented candidates out there, but DHS has not learned how to attract them. One problem is that DHS still hasn’t been able to define the skills needed and job descriptions clearly…

Choosen excerpts by JMM from

via DHS aims to hire 600 cybersecurity pros — if it can find them – CSO Online – Security and Risk.