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Women Veterans: New Cybersecurity Skills
Part III in a White Paper Series
Toward Closing the Gap: Re-Entry for Women Veterans into Cybersecurity Careers
Rachelle S. Heller, Costis Toregas, Taly Walsh
January 2021
Closing the Gap: A DoD Conference on Re-entry for Women Veterans into Cybersecurity
Careers addresses two crucial needs: To fill the exponentially growing cybersecurity talent gap
in the U.S., and to harness the potential of female U.S. veterans, as well as military spouses, to
fill that gap.
In addressing these needs, the George Washington University organizers have assembled a
diverse group of advisors from government, the military, academia and industry to help frame
the conversation and the initiative toward meaningful action, before and during and beyond the
May 25, 2021 Conference date.
“New Cybersecurity Skills” is the third in a series of white papers designed to summarize the
available knowledge on challenges, best practices and potential solutions moving forward.
Introduction
Mack et al (2019) positioned the importance of cybersecurity knowledge and preparedness for
those serving in the military when they noted “It is essential that members of the Reserve Officer
Training Corps (ROTC) be well-versed in computing techniques designed to combat cyber-
attacks that continually improve in sophistication and frequency levels.” Unfortunately, there is
little agreement on exactly what those “computing techniques” are, though in general,
cybersecurity jobs fall into three main categories: Security Architect, Security Engineer and
Security Analyst (Franklin, 2020).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) formulated the National Initiative for
Cybersecurity Education (NICE) in order to provide a national focus for cybersecurity education.
Within the NICE program, the problem of career progression is continuously examined. The
initiative serves as a guide to both academics and employers in describing foundational
Knowledge and Skills that learners, including students, job seekers, and employees need to
obtain to succeed in the cybersecurity field. The program does not specifically cite pathways to
achieving those skills, but presents five goals (NICE Strategic Goals, 2020):
Goal #1: Promote the Discovery of Cybersecurity Careers and Multiple Pathways
Goal #2: Transform Learning to Build and Sustain a Diverse and Skilled Workforce
Goal #3: Modernize the Talent Management Process to Address Cybersecurity Skills Gaps
Goal #4: Expand Use of the Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework)
Goal #5: Drive Research on Effective Practices for Cybersecurity Workforce Development
In addition to the detailed description of the skills and tasks that rely on those skills, the NICE
document outlines four key attributes of any guide to compiling a list of the “new cyber skills.”
