Welcome. The beginning of a new year is a good time to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year and plan for the year ahead. The NICE Program Office spent some time in December celebrating all that we have achieved together as a community, ranging from the release of NIST Special Publication 800-181 NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework to the delivery of two, major national conferences – Annual NICE Conference & Expo and NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Conference. There were many more significant milestones throughout the year. For a complete list visit the NICE Program Office 2017 Accomplishments. 2018 is certain to be an even more important year as NICE works together with community partners to keep advancing cybersecurity education and workforce both which are critical to our national security and economic prosperity. We need to more actively engage cybersecurity employers, from both the public and private sectors, with the collective work that is being done by the NICE community, emphasize the importance of the NICE Framework category of Securely Provision to reduce the need for more cybersecurity workers in other categories such as Protect and Defend or Investigate, describe outputs and measure impact of our various programs and initiatives, and learn from and collaborate with our international peers and partners from government, academia, and industry. This newsletter features several articles that help point to the present and future of how we can continue to work together as a community, bringing together our diverse talents and contributions, towards the common good of supporting a digital economy enabled by a knowledgeable and skilled cybersecurity workforce.

NAME: Carolyn Schmidt

TITLE: Program Manager, Security Engagement and Awareness Team, Office of Information Systems Management

ORGANIZATION: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg Maryland

SPECIALTY AREA: Training, Education, and Awareness

ACADEMIC DEGREES: B.S., Computer Management and Information Science, University of Maryland University College (UMUC); M.S., Cybersecurity, UMUC; M.B.A., Business Administration, UMUC

CERTIFICATIONS: None

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New Regional Resource Centers and National Resource Centers Support Centers of Academic Excellence

by Lynne Clark, National Security Agency/Department of Homeland Security Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Program Office

The National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Program (CAE-CD) was established to promote higher education and research in cyber defense and ensure a growing number of professionals with cyber defense expertise in various disciplines. These programs set the national standards and guidelines for excellence in cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development.. Read More

Impacting Diversity – One Person at a Time

by Gina Mahin, Lynx CEO; Doug Yarabinetz, Lynx Chief Marketing Officer

Lynx Technology Partners (a disabled-veteran, minority-owned business) has always been about more than just delivering cybersecurity, risk, and compliance solutions. Woven into the fabric of the company is a shared mission to have an impact that goes beyond business. Read More 

A State's Perspective to Building the Workforce

by Aaron Verdell Call, Director, Information Security, ISRM Division, Minnesota IT Services

Few information security programs have the funding or resources they need. This is especially true when the organization provides public services. In state government, every dollar spent on IT or backoffice overhead is a dollar that doesn’t directly contribute to school lunches or police training or bridge maintenance - the tangible and easily understood kinds of things that get and keep government officials in office. Read More