Building the Cyber Pipeline: Outreach Initiatives from NSA’s College of Cyber

One of the goals of the National Security Agency is to advance the state of cybersecurity. Towards that goal, the College of Cyber at the National Security Agency (NSA) is leading several important initiatives to build a diverse cyber-skilled workforce. In this panel, presenters will discuss the role of the College of Cyber and various ongoing initiatives focused on improving national cybersecurity education, including: the National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) Programs, GenCyber, and the National Cybersecurity Curriculum Program (NCCP).

• National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE)—The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the NSA jointly sponsor the National CAE program. Through this program, colleges and universities receive designations in Cyber Defense (CAE_CD) and/or Cyber Operations after meeting stringent CAE criteria that includes mapping curricula to cybersecurity-related knowledge units. Discussion will include recent program initiatives such as academic peer mentorship, community collaboration, and evolving designation criteria as well as an overview of various internship programs.
• GenCyber—The GenCyber program provides summer cybersecurity camp experiences (free of charge) for K-12 students and teachers across the nation. The goals of the program are to grow and improve cybersecurity education in the United States, increase interest in cybersecurity careers and diversity in the cybersecurity workforce of the Nation, help students practice correct and safe on-line behavior and understand the foundational principles of cybersecurity, and improve teaching methods for delivering cybersecurity content in K-12 computer science curricula.
• National Cybersecurity Curriculum Program (NCCP)—The primary goal of the National Cybersecurity Curriculum Program is to develop cybersecurity curricula that will be made publicly available for educational institutions who wish to educate and prepare cybersecurity graduates with the requisite knowledge and skills to join the federal workforce. This session will highlight some of the 54 projects that have been awarded and describe the Cyber Ed workshops.