|
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education |
|
With spring comes new beginnings! My name is Kofi Ansah-Brew, and I am excited to join NICE as the Lead for Government Engagement. I recently graduated from the University of Maryland College Park as a CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service (SFS) Scholar. In my new role at NICE, I collaborate with government partners on the local, state, and federal levels to further best practices in cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. Just a few of the councils I sit on are the NICE Interagency Council, the CISO Council, and the CIO Council IT Workforce Committee.
In this edition of our newsletter, our featured article discusses the importance of aligning the NICE Framework and Data Skills Catalog as it relates to data science roles and skills. As the field of data science continues to grow, it is important to develop a standard approach to defining work roles and competencies.
The Academic Spotlight emphasizes the need for more training and educational programs to close the significant workforce gap in the Cyber Engineering field. This article describes how the widening gap serves as forewarning to national security, with a specific focus on the United States Air Force. Secure elections at all levels of government are the cornerstone of American democracy, and our Government Spotlight features a new state initiative to ensure election integrity: The State of Illinois has recently launched the Cyber Navigator Program (CNP), which aims to improve election security statewide. In our Industry Spotlight, Fortinet discusses their efforts to align their Education Pathways and certifications to the NICE Framework.
I hope you enjoy this fun read, and I look forward to working with you all to strengthen our nation’s cybersecurity workforce!
Kofi Ansah-Brew
Lead for Government Engagement, NICE
|
|
|
NICE Framework Competencies: Assessing Learners for Cybersecurity Work
Comments Due May 3, 2021
NICE has released draft supplemental content to the Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework). Draft NIST Interagency or Internal Report (NISTIR) 8355, NICE Framework Competencies: Assessing Learners for Cybersecurity Work, elaborates on competencies, which were re-introduced to the NICE Framework in 2020. The NISTIR provides more detail on what NICE Framework Competencies are, including their evolution and development, and example uses from various stakeholder perspectives.
|
|
Aligning Frameworks for Data Science Roles and Skills: The NICE Framework and Data Skills Catalog
An ongoing challenge in creating workforce frameworks is understanding how they relate to each other and ensuring interoperability among them. The NICE Framework and the Federal Data Strategy Data Skills Catalog present a good example. It is important to understand how to align the two frameworks and how to follow a similar alignment process for overlapping or complementary frameworks that are sure to emerge down the road.
|
|
|
A profile of a cybersecurity practitioner to illustrate
application of the NICE Framework.
Charles Britt
In this issue’s interview, Charles Britt, Information System Security Officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, discusses his career path, the importance of professional skills like communication and continuous learning, among other topics.
Organization: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Category: Oversee & Govern
Work Role: Information Systems Security Manager
Academic Degree: B.S., Information Systems, Capitol Technology University
Certifications: Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
|
|
|
Steven Comer, Dr. Kamal Jabbour, Dr. Marla Jabbour
Louisiana Tech University was the first to launch a Bachelor of Science in Cyber Engineering, helping to fill a significant gap in our education system. The program at Louisiana Tech offers insight into the viability of this critical field.
|
Rob Rashotte, Vice President, Global Training & Technical Field Enablement, Fortinet
Cybersecurity certifications are critical, but the path to them may not always be obvious. To help learners navigate the field, Fortinet developed tailored educational pathways that are mapped to the NICE Framework.
|
Adam Ford, Chief Information Security Officer, Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology
For small and medium-sized local election authorities, developing effective cybersecurity programs can be a daunting task. In Illinois, the State Board of Elections established the Cyber Navigator Program to meet election authorities where they are and work with them to strengthen election security.
|
|
|
Affiliated Programs
Over the winter, the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) released Phase 2 of the Cyber Career Pathways Tool, delivering new enhancements for exploring work roles within the NICE Framework. Also new this year is an internal tool to fast-track the addition of providers’ courses into the Training Catalog in a more efficient way.
Funded Projects
Registration is now open for the Cyber Education Discovery Forum, a 3-day virtual professional development event sponsored by CYBER.ORG. The forum is designed to help educators reset, regroup, and refresh, and it features new cybersecurity content and strategies.
NICE Community Coordinating Council
The NICE K12 Cybersecurity Education Community of Interest has developed a K12 Cybersecurity Education Roadmap. The roadmap establishes a coordinated, coherent portfolio of national K-12 cybersecurity education activities so that efforts and assets are deployed effectively and efficiently for greatest potential impact. The intent is to encourage a more deliberate focus among new and existing efforts and create synergies among programs and agencies.
|
|
|
|
|
