With cybersecurity attacks increasing in frequency and severity and cyber gangs becoming ever more sophisticated, the shortage of cybersecurity professionals to combat them poses one of the biggest threats to public and private computer systems, personal data, and national security. Approximately three million cybersecurity jobs globally remain unfilled this year, and 56% of cybersecurity professionals say that staff shortages are placing their organizations at moderate or extreme risk.

While the private sector is undeniably in great need of cybersecurity professionals, the public sector must compete for the limited supply of qualified candidates, particularly those capable of filling high-level positions. As one DHS official put it, the challenges with recruiting cybersecurity workers to the government is a “national security issue”. The U.S. needs to “figure out how we can build and sustain a cybersecurity workforce as a national asset for America.” Currently, more than 36,000 U.S. public sector cybersecurity jobs remain unfilled, or an astonishing 37 percent of available jobs.