Thursday, July 13, 2017

Cyber scholarships & security




The Boston Globe today proposed elegant solutions to the nation’s need for cyber security.

Its editorial stated, “The administration and Congress should work together to create an ROTC-like program to attract and develop a pipeline for cyber talent in public service.”

If you don’t know that you’ve been subjected to a cyber attack yet, chances are that you were and will be.  Think about the electrical grid.  I know of several cyber attacks that have hit me personally:  the most serious, the hacking of the U.S. personnel office; the most annoying, at an online site for dog tags (the best tags I have ever bought!); and the most ridiculous, after using my debit card at Target.

The Boston Globe proposals include:

-- Government-funded scholarships for undergraduates and graduates in relevant computer science programs in exchange for five years of service;

-- Using common sense and creativity, “the US military should create new cyber reserve units concentrated where talent already exists” such as in Silicon Valley, Austin, Seattle, and Boston.   “The military needs top engineering talent regardless of whether or not they have tattoos, man buns, or the ability to pass a physical fitness test”;

-- The federal government should ramp up its recruiting efforts; and

-- Government agencies should offer sabbaticals and fellowships for selected personnel to spend time in the tech sector, and fellowships should be offered to private-sector cyber experts to enable them to serve for a rotation in government. 


RE blackouts, see:













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