Gorodenkoff/Getty Images

White House cyber office has its eye on workforce data

Data on the cybersecurity workforce is fragmented and inconsistent. A top White House official is looking to change that.

The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director has a plan meant to address urgent problems in cybersecurity education and workforce development, according to officials. 

The national cyber workforce and education strategy includes initiatives meant to close a gap between demand for cybersecurity talent and available workers, a push to connect underrepresented communities to cybersecurity jobs and more, but one top priority for the deputy national cyber director for technology and ecosystem security, Camille Stewart Gloster, is data about the cyber workforce itself. 

“The hard challenge that I'm excited to start to tackle is the data piece,” she told Nextgov/FCW in a recent interview. “I don't think there are any easy answers, but we're not going to shy away from trying to answer that question…what's the right apparatus to intake the data and then how do we use it?”

The problem, as the strategy describes, is the difficulty in obtaining cohesive data to provide a full view of the cyber labor market.

“Currently, state or federal longitudinal data do not completely describe the national cyber workforce in ways that enable workforce development, economic development and education agencies to track the demand for cyber skills and labor market trends,” the strategy says.

The evolving definition of what constitutes a cyber worker is part of the challenge, as is a lack of alignment on how it's defined by different people, said Stewart Gloster.

“And so as the digital ecosystem evolves, and we recognize just how multidisciplinary the space is, … how do you create a system for getting the numbers where the environment is that dynamic? That's the challenge we have ahead of us. And what makes this so hard,” she said.

The strategy itself designates that the Office of the National Cyber Director and National Cyber Workforce Coordination Group — an interagency group that’s implementing the strategy — “will assess systems and processes that collect, analyze and share data to improve our ability to describe the state of the national cyber workforce by industry and occupational classification.”

The strategy also taps the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau with the task “to refine and map cyber-related economic and employment statistics to provide ecosystem stakeholders with insights into current and anticipated cyber workforce needs.”

One idea the White House office is set to “explore” is setting up “an independent National Center for Cyber Data to serve as an authoritative resource,” the strategy says. 

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission has previously recommended that such a center or bureau collect information on cyber breaches, and lawmakers have also previously introduced proposals to create such a bureau.

The federal government also has its own unique challenges in terms of cyber workforce data.

“The federal government has inconsistent, bordering on irrelevant data,” Mark Montgomery, director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission successor CSC 2.0, told Nextgov/FCW. 

Different agencies and departments report cyber workforce data differently, and often inconsistently, to the Office of Personnel Management, he said. 

At the core of the problem is outdated occupational series and position classifications used by the government to categorize jobs, said Karen Evans, former national director of U.S. Cyber Challenge and former chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, who now is the managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute.

The strategy “includes a strong commitment to the holistic integration of” work roles as laid out by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, or NICE, workforce framework “into existing federal workforce management practices, and the deployment of strategic initiatives based on cyber work roles instead of the outdated occupational series.” 

The strategy taps the Office Personnel Management, Federal Cyber Workforce Working Group and NICE program office itself to “evaluate ways to strengthen the use of work roles derived from established workforce frameworks.” 

A 2015 law — the Federal Cyber Workforce Assessment Act — required departments and agencies to tag on a NICE framework code to IT and cybersecurity jobs and report areas of “critical need” to OPM. But “inconsistent application of the NICE Framework across agencies reduces the utility of the resulting data,” the strategy says. The law expired in 2022, although a July bill introduced by Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, would extend the law through 2027.

The federal government has inconsistent, bordering on irrelevant data.
Mark Montgomery, director of CSC 2.0

Montgomery said that even with the law, the data was “inconsistent” at best. He emphasized the need for more training for government HR professionals on cybersecurity hiring and talent management in particular.

OPM unveiled a cyber workforce data dashboard earlier this year, but both Montgomery and Evans both said that it has the same data quality problems as the underlying data in it. 

The strategy says that using work roles could give a more granular look at the talent pool, showing the “size, disposition, composition and developmental needs of the federal cyber workforce.” Quality data could also help agencies look into the future about what types of employees they’ll need and plan for those needs.

“You have to have a target staffing plan and your current staffing plan, and when you have [both], then you would see the gap,” said Evans. “Then, how are you going to recruit for that gap? If you don’t have good data, then you’re shooting in the dark about what your target is.”

As for exactly what to expect from the White House on data moving forward, Gloster said that they are still collecting information and input on how to move forward. 

“Part of the work we have ahead of us is figuring out what is the best way to get the data and then, based on that, we'll know what action we need Congress to take, what things we do ourselves, and then we'll go from there,” she said.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.