Federal lawmakers and cybersecurity leaders are calling for sweeping education reforms and expanded student visa opportunities to help build a stronger, more resilient cyber workforce in the United States – one they say is essential to defending against growing digital threats.
“Maintaining our advantage in human capital should include attracting the best talent for our universities and granting visas to graduates who can help grow our nation’s talent base in science and engineering,” Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, said while speaking at a House Homeland Security field hearing on May 29 in Silicon Valley.
McMaster told lawmakers that bolstering U.S. cybersecurity capabilities depends not just on technology but on expanding the workforce, which he said should include international students trained in the U.S. who are eager to contribute their skills.
“I think one of the most disappointing things that we’ve seen recently is the degree to which we’ve lost a lot of critical expertise within the government,” said McMaster. “Here is a tremendous opportunity … to attract the best power from within our country, certainly, but internationally as well.”
He added that visa processing and immigration reform would enable the U.S. to take better advantage of international talent, saying, “nobody’s trying to immigrate to China … so this is one of our greatest competitive advantages.”
Witnesses agreed that beyond expanding the number of students in cyber fields the U.S. should also look to foster interdisciplinary cyber learning among careers outside of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
“We shouldn’t just focus on teaching cyber to cyber professionals,” said Jeanette Manfra, global director for security and compliance at Google Cloud. “Lawyers need to understand it, doctors need to understand it, teachers need to understand it. So, building more interdisciplinary programs [as] organizations like Stanford and others throughout the country are doing … is really important from an interdisciplinary perspective.”
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chair of the Homeland Security Committee, voiced support for shifting university curriculum to adapt to the digital age.
“[At] most colleges … there is a required basic curriculum to get an undergrad degree,” said Rep. Green. “Why not a ‘Cyber 101’ as a part of the required curriculum in university.”
Witnesses and committee members also noted the need to better integrate cyber education into elementary school classrooms to begin developing cyber skills and awareness at a young age.
“Our adversaries are creating elementary school competitions, where cyber competitions are as critical as ice skating and football is, and so I think that’s an area that we really need to look at,” said Wendi Whitmore, chief security intelligence officer at Palo Alto Networks.