US Army Shares Cyber Warriors with Hollywood & Wall Street

At a time when the Pentagon arguably is losing a battle with industry for top tech talent, the Army is offering companies the resumes of its best cyberwarriors. This is one strategy US organizations are trying out to deal with a workforce challenge as persistent as the cyber threat.  
In Colorado Springs, eight universities, eight industry employers and various federal agencies will gather to formalize the Army Reserve’s Cyber Private Public Partnership, or Cyber P3.
Two soldiers already have landed jobs at Lockheed Martin and a national security-related firm through Cyber P3, which launched in February. 
Part of the effort involves creating equivalent military and university cyber training programs, hence the meeting of the minds in Colorado Springs, home to program participant University of Colorado. 
The initiative is designed to pump out 3,500 to 5,000 Army reserve soldiers. So far, 21 private employers have signed up to transition service members into civilian careers at Citibank, Microsoft, Fox Entertainment and Chevron, among other companies. 
Recently, the Pentagon’s principal cyber adviser Eric Rosenbach said preparations are underway for up to 2,000 reserve and National Guard personnel Defensewide to support surge forces in the event of a catastrophic cyberattack.
Cutting-edge competency is important for any professional, but especially for cybersecurity workers, who face new hacker tricks almost every day.  
The Army estimates that cyber professional vacancies in the government, alone, number around 40,000. Each military service is moving to establish a cyber reserve component, with the Air Force being the furthest along. For example, by 2013, the Maryland Air National Guard had a volunteer network warfare squad to respond to military network intrusions. At the time, the Estonian ambassador likened the Air Force’s program to her country’s longstanding civilian cyber reserve. 
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