Cybercriminals are having no problem upping the number of attacks they spread across various industries, but The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly struggling with maintaining enough staff to ward off the growing number of cyber threats.
Cybercriminals are having no problem upping the number of attacks they spread across various industries, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly struggling with maintaining enough staff to ward off the growing number of cyberthreats.
The U.S. Department of Justice released a report underlining the FBI’s difficulty in attracting and keeping computer scientists for its cybersecurity program, mainly due to low wages, Reuters reported yesterday (July 30).
Under the DOJ’s Next Generation Cyber Initiative, the FBI was authorized to hire 134 computer scientists, but as of January 2015, it had only employed 52, the report stated, highlighting weaknesses within the flagship initiative. The agency’s budget for the program was $314 million in the 2014 fiscal year, which included the available funding for 1,333 full-time employees.
The report also found that while cyber task forces are setup within all 56 of the FBI field offices, there are still five that do not have any computer scientists on payroll.
The root of the problem seems to lie in low salaries, which fall behind what is being offered within the private sector for the same type of work. This has made it difficult for the FBI to hire and retain the cybersecurity experts it needs.
The DOJ’s report pointed to other factors like extensive background checks, drug tests and additional barriers to the FBI keeping otherwise qualified candidates.
As the number of damaging cyberattacks continues to rise, it is a critical time for the U.S. government agencies to have sufficient cybersecurity support.
The federal cybersecurity processes and procedures remain under a microscope since the massive attack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which ultimately compromised over 21 million Social Security numbers, 19.7 million forms with data and 1.1 million fingerprint records.
According to Reuters, in a letter responding to the Office of the Inspector General’s report, the FBI said “the cyber workforce challenge runs throughout the federal government” and that it would continue to foster “aggressive and innovative recruitment and retention strategies.”
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