WANTED: Trained Cyber Defenders

By Jeff Erlichman, Public Sector Communications 

Having the right set of capable and skilled people—who know their role and responsibility—

is critically important for defending your network perimeter and your data itself.

The headline reads: Wanted—1,000 Trained Cyber Defenders. 

This focus on finding the right people is the #1 priority of DHS said Greg Schaffer, Assistant Secretary for CyberSecurity & Communications during the Federal Executive Forum.

“No question about it, people are our #1 priority with respect to everything that we do,” said Schaffer. “Having the right set of capable and skilled people in the cybersecurity arena is critically important to all of our programs; so we are very focused on getting those people hired.”

Recently DHS was given the financial resources to hire 1,000 new cyber defenders. Officials hope they have found some of the people they need at their December Cyber Job Fair. But even if DHS fills each of the 1,000 positions it won’t be enough. And it certainly isn’t enough to fill the governmentwide need.

In fact, SANS Institute’s Alan Paller recently told the audience at the Cyber Crime Conference there are around 1,000 trained digital forensics professionals in the U.S.; 20,000 to 30,000 are really needed to combat the threat.

Contract Expands Cyber Training

It’s clear those newly hired DHS recruits are going to need training. Helping government put contracts in place to train cyber defenders is Ken Evans, GSA FEDSIM Defense Sector Director.

“We help our Defense clients put contracts in places and help them manage the contracts,” explained Evans in a recent interview. “We provide our clients the best vendor that provides the best support they need at the best value.”

One of FEDSIM’s clients is The Defense Cyber Investigations Training Academy (DCITA). DCITA wanted to expand its training offerings in the cyber area said GSA’s Keith Parks, Senior Project Manager, who along with William Kreykenbohm, DOD Group Manager, worked closely with DCITA.

“They also wanted to find a better way to measure whether DCITA training was meeting DOD and federal law enforcement community needs,” explained Parks.

After gathering all the requirements, a performance-based task order was awarded to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) under the GSA Millennia GWAC.

Under the task order CSC is to design, develop and teach courses in areas that computer forensics and network intrusion.

The Academy is the only government organization solely dedicated to cyber investigations training, development, and delivery. Students are trained in the latest digital forensic techniques using state-of-the-art equipment, classrooms, and technologies according to its website.

“The relentless changes in technology, cyber landscape and threats demand that we provide the very best training to our students; from the fundamentals to key tactics, techniques and procedures all delivered through innovative and dynamic methodology,” said Matthew Parsons, director of DCITA in a statement when the contract was awarded.

“DCITA is pleased with the CSC award and anxious to continue our progress in training DOD’s network investigators and operators in this critical mission.”

The World’s Cyber Clearinghouse

Jim Menendez is the Vice President and General Manager of Global Security Solutions (GSS) within CSC’s North American Public Sector (NPS). He, along with CSC project lead Ron Hinkle, head up the CSC DCITA team.

“In the 12 years that CSC has been providing the forensic training at DCITA, we’ve trained over 13,000 students,” said Menendez in a recent interview. He said students from both DOD and civilian agencies either come to the “schoolhouse” as we call it, or have access to remote courses throughout the world including Germany and Iraq.”

“One of the biggest challenges as a nation is the availability of trained professionals,” Menendez said.

He explained the key to CSC’s success is in their approach to training. They are not relying on past performance, but building on that and putting in place new training techniques and approaches, including the use of a portal technology and a new content management system to facilitate distance learning. Students can even earn college credits for courses taken at DCITA.

“Our tagline during the recompete was ‘over the horizon’, looking not only at current requirements, but looking at what we should be doing to meet future demands for training,” Menendez said.

The new contract formalizes a provision to train private sector members of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) so that there is a consistent process for responding to cyber incidents that have been consistent for both the government and DIB members.

Menendez is not shy when he says part of his mission is to help the DCITA meet its business objective of becoming the nation’s—and the world’s—clearinghouse for forensic training.

As more and more agencies race to beef up their training, Menendez is working closely with DCITA staff to figure out ways build out the program that we already have in place to address their needs.

He urges agencies who might be thinking about starting their own training programs to think twice. “Some might think they need their own academy,” said Menendez, “but rather than do that we should promote collaboration across the government and build out what already has been established at DCITA.”

In fact the cyber forensic training requirements go beyond the U.S. said Menendez. “There are NATO forces and others and trying to figure out how we can put MOUs in place and turn this into a global business.”

Learn more at http://www.dc3.mil/dcita/dcitaAbout.phpt.  

The 2009 US Champion Team was the Air Force Institute of Technology’s “Little Bobby Tables” with 1,772 points. They were successful in providing the most solutions to the scenarios for U.S. only teams.

Can you top them? If you are ready to pioneer new investigative tools, techniques and methodologies, then it’s time for you to enter the DOD Cyber Crime Center Challenge.

The DOD Cyber Crime Center (DC3) sets standards for digital evidence processing, analysis, and diagnostics for any DOD investigation that requires computer forensic support to detect, enhance, or recover digital media, including audio and video.

Already over 190+ teams have registered for the 2010 Challenge! Registration closes November 1, 2010. Solutions are due November 2, 2010. Winners will be announced December 1, 2010.

To register email challenge@dc3.mil; call 410.981.6610 or fax 410.981.1092.

DC3 also sponsors the US Cyber Challenge (http://csis.org/uscc/) which is a national talent search and skills development program.

Its purpose is to identify 10,000 young Americans with the interests and technical computer skills to fill the ranks of cyber security practitioners, researchers, and warriors. In particular, the search is looking for the people who can become the top guns in cybersecurity.

The identification process relies on national competitions with many winners. They include CyberPatriot high school competition conducted by the Air Force Association, the DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge conducted by the US Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, and the NetWars vulnerability identification competition conducted by the SANS Institute.

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Wanted: Trained Cyber Defenders

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