Looking for more? The following cybersecurity-related resources and links are included for your information and convenience. Not finding what you need? Let us know – NICCS@hq.dhs.gov.

  • Cybersecurity Workforce Training Guide
    CISA’s Cybersecurity Workforce Training Guide helps cyber professionals develop a training plan based on their current skill level and desired career opportunities. The Guide is downloadable, interactive, and meant to work in tandem with the Cyber Career Pathways Tool.
     
  • Defend the Crown
    CISA partnered with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to create Defend the Crown, a game where users must protect castles from potential invasion by deploying various cyber defenses. Download the app via the Apple AppStore and Google Play.
  • Cybersecurity Competitions
    Engage in cybersecurity opportunities outside of the classroom by participating in competitions online and across the country:
    • National Cyber Cup – a free, trivia-style capture-the-flag competition for students focusing on various cybersecurity topics such as reverse engineering, decryption, and programming.
    • CyberPatriot – the nation’s largest cyber defense competition for teams of middle and high school students capable of finding and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities while maintaining critical services. Learn more about all the cybersecurity-related initiatives CyberPatriot offers here.
    • GenCyber – provides cybersecurity experiences for students and teachers at the secondary (K-12) level. Camps are available at no-cost for students and teachers across the country.
    • President’s Cup – individual and group cybersecurity competition series designed to identify, recognize, and reward the best cyber talent across the federal workforce. Practice demo challenges and content from past President's Cup competitions for free at presidentscup.cisa.gov.
       
  • The Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework)
    Learn more about the NICE Framework Categories, Work Roles, Competencies, and Task, Knowledge, and Skill (TKS) statements as well as the relationships between those elements in this downloadable PDF.
     
  • CyberSeek
    To help close the cybersecurity skills gap, CyberSeek provides detailed, actionable data around supply and demand in the cybersecurity job market.
     
  • CISA Cybersecurity Awareness Program
    A national public awareness campaign aimed at increasing the understanding of cyber threats and empowering the American public to be safer and more secure online.
     
  • Cybersecurity Training and Exercises
    CISA offers various cybersecurity training and exercises including Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM), Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and Incident Response training courses as well as critical infrastructure exercises.
     
  • (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Research PDFs
    The cybersecurity workforce skills gap is growing and (ISC)2 conducts research aimed at better understanding the challenges and opportunities facing cybersecurity professionals in the ever-changing 21st century workforce.
     
  • Cyber Career Awareness PDF
    A slick sheet highlighting cybersecurity career and awareness resources as well as CYBER.ORG’s overall impact on cybersecurity communities.
     
  • Workforce Management Guidebook - Cybersecurity is Everyone's Job
    A publication that talks about cybersecurity from every business function and aspect of an organization’s operation. It is written for a general audience who may not be knowledgeable about cybersecurity and can be read as a complete guide or by each business function as standalone guides.
     
  • CyberMission.tech
    A Department of Defense (DoD) cyber initiative with high-tech, hands-on opportunities for military personnel, Veterans, and the public.
     
  • Introduction to Assured Software Engineering Course - Instructor Notes
    Downloadable course designed for Community College Professors to use as an introduction to assured software engineering. The course highlights software assurance challenges, foundations, and guiding principles, along with covering security models and methods.
     
  • Introduction to Assured Software Engineering Course – Slide Deck
    The Introduction to Assured Software Engineering Course slide deck for college students along with teacher instructions.

Below is a collection of three white papers sponsored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and authored by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Software Engineering Institute (SEI) that explore critical challenges facing our nation’s cybersecurity workforce. For an overview of the findings, please download the Executive Summary.

  • Cybersecurity Careers of the Future
    Provides a list of key cybersecurity skills needed to close the workforce gap, based off workforce survey analysis, threat reports, service offerings, open job postings, applicable regulations, and emerging technologies to identify the required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) and Work Roles.
     
  • Cybersecurity Talent Identification and Assessment
    Explores how cybersecurity talent is identified, highlights current and future assessment capabilities, and provides recommendations on candidate recruitment and talent evaluation.
     
  • Cybersecurity Career Paths and Progression
    Explores the current state of cybersecurity careers from the importance of early exposure, to methods of entry into the field, to career progression.