To recruit cyber talent, feds must make up elsewhere what jobs lack in pay, survey says
When hiring for cybersecurity professionals, federal agencies need to offer training and other benefits while recruiting more from overlooked groups like women and minorities, a new survey says.
On average, federal agencies pay $7,000 less to their cyber personnel than those in other industries, according to the eighth biannual Global Information Security Workforce Study, done by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education and sponsored by contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, cyber recruiters Alta Associates and the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium or (ISC)², unveiled Tuesday at (ISC)²’s conference CyberSecureGov in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. government “must enhance its benefits … to attract future hires and retain existing personnel given its fierce competition with the private sector for skilled workers and the unprecedented demand,” said Dan Waddell, (ISC)² managing director, North America. “Unfortunately,” he added, “the layers of complexity involved in fulfilling that goal are significant.”
Shaun Waterman has the story on CyberScoop, diving further into the survey, which polled more than 19,600 information security workers all over the world — including 2,620 feds: 1,614 from the Department of Defense, and 1,006 federal civilian employees or federal contractors.
