The United States Army is the most powerful land force in the world. For 240 years, its success has relied on the people that don the uniform everyday (not a fancy technological gadget). Our model on recruiting and retaining the high caliber of Soldiers and Leaders that are agile and innovative thinkers/planners/doers is successful. However, that model hiccups when applied to our cybersecurity workforce. From a recruitment model, we need to look for a different kind person that hangs out in different locations than where we find potential Infantry Soldiers. It also means that we need to change how we incentivize our recruiters. Additionally, once we recruit a talented cybersecurity professional – we must change our retention strategy as they are typically motivated to stay for reasons different than the remainder of our workforce. This talk will discuss how we must change our recruitment and retention processes within the Army and the progress we are making in that regard. Additionally, our ideas and lessons learned can be easily translated into success for a civilian business as we all face similar challenges in finding and keeping these talented individuals.
- How to successfully recruit a high-quality cybersecurity workforce
- Retaining a cybersecurity workforce is a different model
- Using mathematical models to justify workforce incentives
About Natalie Vanatta
Natalie Vanatta is one of the first U.S. Army Cyber Officers and is currently working at the Army Cyber Institute to explore the “cyber” challenges facing the Army 5-10 years in the future. She has her PhD in mathematics from the Naval Postgraduate School and multiple M.S. degrees. She has worked from the tactical to operational levels in the communications/IT field around the world while also teaching/researching in the cybersecurity domain. She spends her time mathematically destroying encryption systems and exploring malicious behavior (both by 1s and 0s and by actors).
