The United States is at war in cyberspace. The scope and complexity of nation-state and criminal cyber intrusions has grown tremendously over the past year, leaving the nation to battle not only cyber warfare, but for talent. The SolarWinds attack revealed in December of 2020 was the most extensive cyberattack leveraged against the federal government to date, according to the FBI. Attacks on U.S. and global industry have reached a fever pitch. The COVID-19 pandemic presented tremendous opportunity for IP theft of vaccine information and distribution plans, while local school districts shifting to online learning faced an onslaught of cybersecurity challenges – from Zoombombed classrooms to cyberattacks on schools’ digital architecture. Concurrently, American cities with aging infrastructure became ideal targets for ransomware attacks that left local governments in financial ruin, while many of these incidents could have been prevented through basic cybersecurity hygiene measures and additional cybersecurity personnel.
At the same time, the significant U.S. cybersecurity workforce shortage has put tremendous strain on industry, government, and the global economy, as companies of all sizes and federal, state and local governments struggle to fill open positions in the face of increased threat. The somber reality is that the U.S. is expected to face a shortage of 1.8 million skilled cybersecurity workers by 2022, making educating and empowering the next generation of cybersecurity professionals imperative to our future national and economic security. A recent report by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, (ISC)² advised that the U.S. cybersecurity workforce must surge by 62 percent to close the skills gap, while nearly 4 million security professionals would need to be added to close the global skills gap.