Many Federal government agencies are having a difficult time filling cybersecurity roles with skilled personnel, but going forward, the FBI is placing an emphasis on building a diverse workforce to support its mission.
Cynthia Kaiser, deputy assistant director of the Cyber Division at the FBI, explained today that the FBI’s priority is to be there for victims of a cyber incident – and having a diverse workforce to reflect the communities it represents is paramount.
“There’s no mold for what a cybersecurity professional is going to look like at the FBI because there’s no mold for the threats that we currently or will in the future have to face,” Kaiser said at a Billington CyberSecurity event this afternoon. “And the FBI feels incredibly strongly that our workforce needs to look like and have the same types of experiences as the communities we represent.”
“Now, that doesn’t mean that we’re kind of just standing by and waiting for things to happen,” she added. “We’ve been incredibly purposeful in thinking about how we ensure diversity of our workforce.”
For example, Kaiser said that includes the FBI signing the 30×30 Pledge, which aims to have 30 percent of law enforcement recruits be women by 2030.
“This is an intensely personal issue for me as a woman, as a woman with ADHD, and just as somebody who desperately wants to ensure that we’re as creative as we can be so that we can face the threats of tomorrow with the best skills and knowledge and abilities we can,” she said.
Kaiser was able to share some of the progress the FBI made so far, announcing that 32 percent of the agency’s senior leaders and executives are now women. Additionally, she said 26 percent of the FBI’s computer scientists are women and 51 percent of its data analysts are women.
Aside from the FBI’s commitment to building a diverse workforce, Kaiser said another perk of working at the FBI is that “you’re going to get to do some things you couldn’t do anywhere else.” She said that includes receiving large amounts of training, taking on adversaries, and ultimately, having “fun.”
“One of the areas that’s best to highlight though is the FBI’s incredibly low attrition rate. People who join the FBI stay,” Kaiser said. “It’s because of the mission, it’s because of the culture, it’s because of the great work they get to do and the more we’re able to go out and talk about that. We don’t need to bring in everybody, you need to bring the right people who want to do the work that we do.”
