Should You Need A License To Practice Cybersecurity?

The government should sponsor a national body to license cyber professionals and authorize cyber certifications, and then spin it off into an independent consortium, a military faculty member at the Pentagon's National Defense University said.

A body akin to an American Medical Association is needed to authorize individuals to practice as cyber professionals and to revoke that license when necessary, said Lt Col Sean CG Kern, an NDU information security professor. In order for that body to possess authority, it would have to be federally funded, at least initially. This model also would include sub-associations for specialty areas, such as digital forensics, that would pick which certifications currently offered by various firms should be required.

The Homeland Security Department and National Institute of Standards and Technology have carved out 31 cyber specialties. It might not be hard to imagine an American Cybersecurity Association, but upending the cyber certification industry would ruffle some feathers. International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium -- or (ISC)2 -- officials argued that overhauling the certification system would undo hard-won progress in educating the cyber workforce and exacerbate cyber staff shortages.

"Our organization has worked closely with government and anytime that they believe they need a more technical, specific credential, we sit down and build it," (ISC)2 Executive Director Hord Tipton said at the time.