National Cyber Director Harry Coker Jr. is pushing for more diverse recruitment to fill nearly half a million vacant cyber jobs nationwide — and he’s starting with the Community College of Baltimore County.
Coker spoke to the college’s packed auditorium Thursday morning about alleviating the cybersecurity burden from schools, hospitals and local governments. The solution, he says, is a strong cyber workforce.
“With 500,000 vacancies, we haven't gotten it right yet,” he said. “We haven't looked everywhere we need to look, we haven't developed people the way we need to develop. The numbers speak for themselves.”
CCBC President Sandra Kurtinitis said her school is the perfect place to look, for many reasons.
The community college was among the first nationwide to receive recognition as a national center for academic excellence in cybersecurity by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The student body also contains the rich diversity that Coker is looking to recruit, Kurtinitis said.
“We serve nearly 50,000 students a year. Eighty-two percent of them come from low-income and minority communities,” she said. And 93% of student graduates work locally.
That’s an important pipeline to fill cyber job gaps. Over 31,000 cyber job vacancies last year were in Maryland, with 16,000 specifically in the Baltimore area. More than 6,400 CCBC students are currently enrolled in cyber-related programs.
“Cybersecurity isn't some faraway digital fight,” Coker said. “There's a lot at stake for our national security, our economic security, and for every community in this nation.”
Baltimore-are residents know that all too well. In May 2019, a ransomware attack hit the Baltimore City government, disabling technology and communication systems.
“Baltimore’s story became a warning to local governments across the nation,” Coker said. “In fact, the lessons we learned here in Baltimore became instructive to governments and businesses alike.”
Coker was sworn in last month as the second person to lead the Office of the National Cyber Director, which was established in 2021 to directly advise the president on cyber security matters. In March 2023, President Biden released a National Cybersecurity Strategy that ignited the focus on recruitment for cybersecurity professions.
“The only way we can defend the digital systems that lay the foundation for our modern way of life is to be sure that every American and people from every community have a pathway to a cyber-based career,” Coker said.
His office is also working to reduce existing barriers in hiring, like requiring candidates to have a four-year college degree, and developing a more robust network of scholarships, internships and trainings.
