Administration issues far-reaching plan for building cyber workforce

The Obama Administration released the first-ever roadmap for building a U.S. cybersecurity workforce and testing the government's success at raising public awareness of computer threats.

Currently, there is no definition of what it means to be a cybersecurity professional. The draft strategic plan sets forth a way to measure the results of federal and private sector workforce development efforts. The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, or NICE, a branch of the Commerce Department, developed the proposal this spring to bring some order to the new frontier of cybersecurity training, agency officials said at the time. "This plan will provide a path to a more secure digital nation," states the document, which also attempts to gauge the influence of cyber publicity campaigns. The plan includes specific instructions for the federal government on how to "maintain an unrivaled, globally competitive cybersecurity workforce."