Jacky Rosen Asks DoD Nominee About Attracting, Retaining Cyber Talent Amid Private Sector Pull

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) questioned Katherine E. Sutton, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, about the federal cyber workforce.

Transcript

00:00that Senator Rosen is next. Well, thank you, Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Reed, for holding

00:07this hearing. Thank you to the witnesses for your willingness to serve your families I know are here

00:12today. I'm going to switch up a little bit. We'll give you a little bit of a break, Mr. Tata, because

00:18I want to focus on cyber intel capability with Ms. Sutton. And so the FY25 NDAA included a provision

00:26I helped champion to have the department establish a cyber intelligence capability to provide

00:32foundational, scientific, and technical intelligence support for cybercom and the rest of the joint

00:37force. So, Ms. Sutton, can you discuss how, if confirmed, you will address that requirement

00:42and what is your understanding of the department's current approach to standing this up, including

00:47the lessons learned from the recently completed cyber intelligence pilot with the Defense Intelligence

00:52Agency? Senator, I appreciate the question and also appreciate the attention that you've

00:59put on this issue. In all domains of warfare, intelligence is critical to being able to conduct

01:04our operations. But it is particularly critical in the cyber domain for a range of applications

01:12to develop capabilities, to build the accesses that we needed, to execute the operations, and

01:18to understand situational awareness of the battle space. As the demand signal for our cyber operations

01:26has grown considerably in response to the threat of malicious cyber actors, so has that need

01:32for intelligence. And unfortunately, we have not kept pace in the workforce needed to be able

01:39to support the intelligence, the growing intelligence need. As you mentioned, it is my understanding

01:45that there has been a recent pilot that has been completed with the command and the intelligence

01:50community. And if confirmed, I look forward to understanding the specific gaps that they

01:55were identified, as well as ensuring that we have the right organizational structure in

02:00place to be able to move out on those recommendations, and also to make sure that we can bring in the

02:06highly technical and deeply skilled talent that you're aware is necessary to be successful in

02:13this technical intelligence. Right. Well, as a cyber threat evolves, that means the evolution

02:18of our cyber forces as well. So that brings me to my next question about cyber workforce. Well,

02:23actually recruit and retention. But the DOD continues to struggle with recruiting and retaining cyber

02:29talent, particularly against this really highly competitive private sector. The issue undermines

02:34our readiness across all of our domains. And it is really a priority of mine to fix this issue

02:39as ranking member of the cybersecurity subcommittee. So if confirmed, what specific actions would

02:45you take to attract and retain the skilled cyber professionals, especially when you're competing

02:50with the private sector? And what barriers, cultural, structural, policy-based, do you believe

02:57you're preventing DOD from doing this? How can we work together to help you in this capacity?

03:05I share your concern about the importance of making sure that we have the best and brightest

03:10on our team. That is the only way we're going to be successful against the adversary. I believe

03:16that this is going to be a variety of approaches. There's not going to be one simple step we can take

03:20in the department. We're going to have to look at making sure we're bringing in the right talent,

03:24that we're incentivizing it appropriately, and that we're keeping it on mission. One key area that I

03:30think we have underutilized in the past is looking at how we leverage our reserve and national guard

03:36and bring in the talent that they have in private industry and apply it to our mission space. I've

03:42seen many examples in my time at the command where we will bring in an air force reservist who has an

03:48advanced degree in data science, works in private industry, and they come in and advise on our AI

03:54strategy and our AI roadmap, or where we have an army reservist who spent almost a decade as one of our

04:01most capable operators in the force, became a reservist, is now in private industry, and has been

04:07fundamental in advising our new force generation model. I think that that is a pillar that if

04:13confirmed, I look forward to being able to support further.

04:15Well, that's why we have the pilot program on my civilian cybersecurity reserve

04:19to really give us this capacity. I look forward to working with you on that.

04:25And I know you're working, thinking about the partnerships. We have issues like rotational

04:31programs with the private sector, pay flexibility, expedited clearing process, some of those things

04:36to improve workforce readiness. But we also have our academia. Like my home state of Nevada, we have

04:42UNLV, UNR, and Desert Research Institute. They're exploring innovative ways to grow our cyber

04:47talent locally. So how will you partner with our universities, if you will?

04:53Absolutely. We need to look across the nation's talent for how we can leverage it.

04:59If confirmed, I would look to further leverage the Cyber Center of Excellence program that today

05:04has been very focused on bringing a talented pipeline of students into government, and particularly

05:10the Department of Defense. But looking at how we could further leverage that to help us solve some

05:15of the hardest problems that our force faces.

05:19Thank you. I look forward to working with you on all of this. Thank you.

Category

Transcript

Recommended