skip to main content
10.1145/2978192.2978233acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesiteConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Design and Launch of an Intensive Cybersecurity Program for Military Veterans

Published: 28 September 2016 Publication History

Abstract

The demand for trained cybersecurity operators is growing more quickly than traditional programs in higher education can fill. At the same time, unemployment for returning military veterans has become a nationally discussed problem. We describe the design and launch of New Skills for a New Fight (NSNF), an intensive, one-year program to train military veterans for the cybersecurity field. This non-traditional program, which leverages experience that veterans gained in military service, includes recruitment and selection, a base of knowledge in the form of four university courses in a simultaneous cohort mode, a period of hands-on cybersecurity training, industry certifications and a practical internship in a Security Operations Center (SOC). Twenty veterans entered this pilot program in January of 2016, and will complete in less than a year's time. Initially funded by a global financial services company, the program provides veterans with an expense-free preparation for an entry-level cybersecurity job.

References

[1]
Armitage, W., Boyer, N., Langevin, S., Gaspar, A., Rapid Conversion of an IT Degree Program to Online Delivery: Impact, Problems, Solutions and Challenges. Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Information Technology Education (Fairfax, Virginia, USA, October 22-24, 2009). SIGITE '09. ACM, New York, NY, 100--107.
[2]
Art of Exploitation, http://www.artofexploitation.com/.
[3]
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation of Veterans Summary, March 22, 2016, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/vet.a.htm.
[4]
Bureau of Labor Statistics 2016, Security Analysts, http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/information-security-analysts.htm.
[5]
Cisco public document 2015. Mitigating the Cybersecurity Skills Shortage, http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/security/cybersecurity-talent.pdf.
[6]
Gattoni, B. 2014. From FOB to NOC-A Pathway to a Cyber Career for Combat Veterans. Master's Thesis. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. http://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/42630.
[7]
Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), CSX Practitioner Training, https://cybersecurity.isaca.org/csx-certifications/csx-practitioner-certification.
[8]
McClary, B., Veteran underemployment represents growing concern, signalscv.com, January 17, 2016, http://www.signalscv.com/archives/147428/.
[9]
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, http://www.nist.gov/cyberframework/upload/cybersecurity-framework-021214.pdf.
[10]
Nextgov newsletter 2013. How Many Cyberattacks Hit the United States Last Year?, http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2013/03/how-many-cyberattacks-hit-united-states-last-year/61775/.
[11]
Office of Management and Budget, Memorandum 15--16: Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy, July 12, 2016, https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2016/m-16--15.pdf.
[12]
SANS CyberTalent Immersion Academy, DOI= https://www.sans.org/cybertalent/immersion-academy.
[13]
SC Magazine, SC Awards 2016, http://media.scmagazine.com/documents/213/botn_final_53207.pdf.
[14]
Security Week 2014, High Demand Pushes Average Cyber Security Salary Over $93,000, http://www.securityweek.com/high-demand-pushes-average-cyber-security-salary-over-93000.
[15]
TBO 2015, Colleges Rush to Create Cybersecurity Soldiers, http://www.tbo.com/news/education/colleges-rush-to-create-cybersecurity-soldiers-20150111/.
[16]
W2CCA, Wounded Warrior Cyber Combat Academy, http://www.w2cca.org.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Edge Federated Learning for Smart HealthCare Systems: Applications and Challenges2024 4th International Conference on Sustainable Expert Systems (ICSES)10.1109/ICSES63445.2024.10763213(1727-1735)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
  • (2022)Blockchain for Modern Applications: A SurveySensors10.3390/s2214527422:14(5274)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2022
  • (2018)Developing an Undergraduate Course Curriculum on Information SecurityProceedings of the 19th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/3241815.3241849(66-71)Online publication date: 14-Sep-2018

Index Terms

  1. Design and Launch of an Intensive Cybersecurity Program for Military Veterans

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGITE '16: Proceedings of the 17th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education
    September 2016
    188 pages
    ISBN:9781450344524
    DOI:10.1145/2978192
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 28 September 2016

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. cybersecurity
    2. training
    3. veterans.

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article

    Conference

    SIGITE/RIIT 2016
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    SIGITE '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 26 of 67 submissions, 39%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 176 of 429 submissions, 41%

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)7
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
    Reflects downloads up to 20 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Edge Federated Learning for Smart HealthCare Systems: Applications and Challenges2024 4th International Conference on Sustainable Expert Systems (ICSES)10.1109/ICSES63445.2024.10763213(1727-1735)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2024
    • (2022)Blockchain for Modern Applications: A SurveySensors10.3390/s2214527422:14(5274)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2022
    • (2018)Developing an Undergraduate Course Curriculum on Information SecurityProceedings of the 19th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/3241815.3241849(66-71)Online publication date: 14-Sep-2018

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media