Communications of the ACM
Defending the Nation's Critical Cyber Infrastructure
Credit: Northeastern University
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is joining Bechtel and Los Alamos National Laboratory to train a new class of cyber defense professionals to protect the United States' critical digital infrastructure.
The Bechtel-Lawrence Livermore-Los Alamos Cyber Career Development Program is designed to allow the national labs to recruit and rapidly develop cyber security specialists who can guide research at their respective institutions and create solutions that meet the cyber defense needs of private industry. About 80 percent of the nation's critical digital infrastructure and assets are owned and operated by private industry.
"As a national security laboratory one of our missions is to defend the nation's critical infrastructure," says Doug East, LLNL CIO. "This program will provide recruits with experience in the labs' national defense research and development culture and hands-on experience in Bechtel's global cyber operations. Our goal is to produce cyber defenders with first-hand knowledge of the security challenges faced by private industry and the tools to address those problems."
A central feature of the three-year program is that the cyber defense recruits will be rotated among the three institutions as a part of their training to give them a broader view of cyber defense and to quickly leverage the strengths of each program partner. The rotational program helps meet the demand for qualified cyber defenders by training new recruits at an accelerated pace through exposure to various corporate environments in a relatively short period of time.
"The benefit to the nation is that private industry will be better able to defend itself and the national labs will develop an enhanced capability to defend U.S. cyber assets," says Matt Myrick, the cyber security architect who will lead the Livermore program.
Under the program recruits will be evenly distributed across the three institutions. After a year of local training, participants will rotate to the other institutions before returning to the hiring organization as a permanent employee. The first two years of the program is being funded by Bechtel.
Lawrence Livermore Deputy Director and Bechtel Principal Vice President Tom Gioconda notes that: "Our firewalls withstand thousands of attacks each day. These young professionals will be on the front lines of this battle and they'll emerge with great experience."
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