CybersecurityAll-industry cybersecurity association needed: Experts

A new report from the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy is calling for a professional association committed to serving the cybersecurity industry. The report, Professionalization of Cybersecurity, acknowledged the shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals, as well as the difficulty of recruiting, training, and hiring potential candidates. “The cybersecurity industry in this country is highly fragmented and characterized by a fog of competing requirements, disjointed development programs, conflicting definitions of security roles and functions, and many different competing and often confusing commercial certifications,” Francesca Spidalieri, a cyber leadership fellow, and co-author of the report said in a statement. “In short, the present reality is inadequate to address the threat at hand.”

Associations Now suggests that a cybersecurity association could help assess the needs of employers seeking cybersecurity professionals, establish ongoing training and development programs, and also help develop cybersecurity standards across all industries.

In the meantime, industry associations such as the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, (CHIME) are launching industry-based groups to help educate and train cybersecurity professionals within their respective sectors. The newly launched Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS) will help facilitate collaboration among senior information officers in the healthcare industry. “In light of today’s ever-changing digital world, chief security officers in healthcare are under immense pressure to protect their organization’s information assets and architecture, while adhering to … privacy and security mandates” under federal law, CHIME Executive Vice President of Membership and Professional Development George McCulloch said in a statement. “Our goal is to help provide the education and collaborations necessary for CSOs to progress their knowledge, solve issues, and form meaningful, supportive relationships with their peers.”

Lt. Colonel Sean Kern, a cyberspace operations officer at National Defense University and co-author of the Pell Center report notes that creating an all-industry cybersecurity professional association will take years, but he hopes that the report will encourage additional research and efforts to unify the cybersecurity industry under a common purpose.