Lawmakers Push for Increased Cyber Hiring and Training

Three Democratic Congress members sent a letter this week suggesting the government borrow private-sector practices to improve federal hiring and training in order to bolster the cybersecurity workforce.

In the letter to Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Kathleen McGettigan, Reps. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), who co-chair the New Democrat Coalition Cybersecurity Task Force, suggested ways to tackle the “unprecedented” cybersecurity challenges, in addition to the government’s prosaic recruitment and retention of skilled cyber professionals.

“In recent years we've seen that our infrastructure, our economy, and even our very democracy are vulnerable to cyberattacks,” said Kilmer in a statement on May 4.

The lawmakers specifically asked to increase employee training, plus expanding the requirements for cyber jobs as a means to strengthen the federal talent pool.