Ramona Adams
Earl Matthews, vice president of DXC Technology‘s enterprise security solutions group, has said that the U.S. government and Defense Department should consider establishing a civilian reserve cyber corps to address the shortage of cyber personnel.
Matthews wrote in an article posted Friday on SIGNAL magazine that the civilian cyber corps can be modeled after the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program, which helps the U.S. military meet airlift requirements during emergencies using select aircraft from U.S. airlines.
The cyber corps can help defend DoD networks and protect critical infrastructure, Matthews noted.
He added that the civilian cyber program should adopt CRAF’s multi-stage deployment approach, where civilian assets are classified into different segments according to the nature of requirement and capabilities needed.
The Department of Homeland Security should oversee the cyber corps in the same way that the Transportation Department manages CRAF, according to Matthews.
The civilian cyber program could use the National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s Cybersecurity Workforce Framework as a guide for the categorization of cyber roles, then develop additional publications or tools as the positions evolve.
The program should initially seek the support of certified ethical hackers on vulnerability tests against DoD networks and critical infrastructure, Matthews said.
Potential members of the civilian cyber corps would have to undergo a background check since most of them would need security clearances to access certain mission systems.
