(ISC)² Foundation, in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, designed the program to help ease veterans’ transition into the civilian workforce by underwriting all the expenses associated with the pursuit of certification – to include training, textbooks, mobile study materials, certification testing and the first year of certification maintenance fees. Applications will open July 1.
“Veterans entering the civilian workforce represent a large cohort of motivated professionals with a solid work ethic and admirable core values,” says Booz Allen principal Tony Urbanovich, a member of the scholarship review committee. “Many have performed tasks in the military that, with additional training, can lead to successful cyber and information security careers. Booz Allen is proud to support a program that benefits our veterans, our industry, and our nation.”
The committee will award a total of 10 scholarships to veterans, and winners will be announced in October 2013 during National Cyber Security Awareness month.
The recently released findings of (ISC)²’s sixth bi-annual Global Information Security Workforce Study found that the lack of skilled information security professionals is becoming a critical issue for companies, who are feeling a cascading, negative effect in a number of areas.
“It’s impacting on the workforce itself,” said John Colley, managing director for (ISC)² EMEA, in discussion with Infosecurity when the results were released. “71% said they felt under strain because they don’t have enough staff in place.”
Further, the study found that the skills shortage has a direct correlation to the number of breaches and a company’s ability to respond to incidents. And, 47% of respondents said that this in turn has a direct effect on the organization’s customers.
The 2013 study shows the top five specific skill sets lacking are security analyst, security engineer with skills in planning/design or application, security auditor, and security architect. The new scholarship program will focus on four (ISC)² certifications that will help returning veterans demonstrate that they possess those skills: the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP), Certified Authorization Professional (CAP) and Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP).
"We see this program as matching military veterans seeking to ease their way back into civilian life who already have a strong, innate desire to protect their country with a profession desperate to fill open positions that is also ripe with opportunity," said Julie Peeler, director of the (ISC)² Foundation.