Homeland Security to Hire 140 Cyber-Security Experts

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to increase its capabilities over the next year with the hiring of dozens of new staff members trained in the protection of computer systems.

“We plan to hire 140 additional cyber-security experts by October 2012, bringing the agency’s total to 400,” said Philip Reitinger, deputy undersecretary of the DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate.

The search for experts is the start of a larger plan to strengthen Homeland Security’s workforce.

“Cyber-security is one of our most urgent priorities,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in her announcement a year ago that The Department of Homeland Security plans hire up to 1,000 cyber-security experts in the next three years to help protect U.S. computer networks.

This is in part to President Barack Obama’s recently proposed cybersecurity plan.  In the plan, the Obama administration released a cybersecurity legislative agenda that assigned the Department of Homeland Security as the lead agency in protecting federal agencies and the critical IT infrastructure.

Many IT security experts have expressed concern that the United States is vulnerable to a massive cyber-attack due to our reliance and dependence on the Internet. Industries such as health care, transportation, telecommunications, financial services, energy and others are considered by experts to be potential targets because they have weak defenses.

This DHS announcement presents an opportunity for African Americans per a study by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, as noted recently in a Black Enterprise article, “10 Highest-Paying College Degrees for African Americans.”

The Georgetown study investigated the economic value of 171 college majors and went deeper to provide a breakdown of the highest and lowest-paying degrees by sex and race.

In the Black Enterprise article, seven of the 10 highest-paying college degrees were IT and engineering-related fields such as computer science, computer network & telecommunications and information science.

Information on career opportunities with DHS is available here.

Kellep Charles is completing his Doctorate in Information Assurance at Capitol College. He covers information security, privacy and safety issues for SecurityOrb.com (@securityorb). Follow Kellep on Twitter at @kellepc. His e-mail address is kellep [at] securityorb [dot] com.

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One Response to Homeland Security to Hire 140 Cyber-Security Experts

1. S. W. says:

   10:24pm June 6, 2011 at 10:24 pm

   This is an important step taken by DHS. As we all know, technology is transforming society — and most often times for the better. But equally important with innovation is security. Whether we're talking about a cyber attack within our country or one from the outside, our nation must be prepared. And ideally, we prevent as many cyber crimes as possible.

   Reply