The U.S. is facing a critical shortage of cybersecurity professionals, a challenge that is not only growing but also poses a significant threat to national security. CyberSeek, a joint initiative of NIST’s NICE program, CompTIA, and Lightcast, reports in its dashboard over 469,930 job openings in cybersecurity. (CyberSeek, 2024) Despite the escalating cyber threats, the talent pool to combat these threats remains insufficient, and this shortage is a crisis that will only deepen over time, potentially compromising the defense of the United States.
The Growing Cybersecurity Skills Gap
The cybersecurity landscape is more complex and dangerous than ever before. Cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated, and the number of incidents is rising rapidly. For instance, as part of its 17th-annual Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), Verizon analyzed a record-high 30,458 security incidents and 10,626 confirmed breaches in 2023—a two-fold increase over 2022 (Verizon, 2024). The report also emphasized that the vast majority of these breaches could have been prevented if organizations had the right vulnerability management measures in place – measures that hinge on having skilled professionals at the helm. This sure was mainly fueled by the growing frequency of attacks by ransomware actors, targeting vulnerabilities in unpatched systems and devices, including zero-day vulnerabilities.
The Vision for the U.S. in Cybersecurity
Looking ahead, the U.S. must ask itself: what role does it want to play in global cybersecurity 30 years from now? Will it continue to be the world’s cybersecurity leader, or will it cede that position to countries like Israel, China, or India? The answer is clear—if the U.S. does not invest in its cybersecurity workforce now, it risks l ..
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