A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says that the U.S. Navy needs to address the accuracy of its workforce data in order to strengthen the service branch’s cybersecurity workforce.
The May 13 report says that GAO attempted to determine “the structure and composition of the Navy’s military and civilian workforce but found that the underlying data were unreliable,” including some data on vacancy rates.
“The Navy faces continuing challenges with data as it works to strengthen its cyber workforce,” GAO concluded.
Other underlying data-related issues revealed in the report include the data structure used to schedule cyber training for many civilians and sailors who work for the Navy.
“The National Security Agency and outside vendors administer training for many of the cyber work roles, but accessing this training is dependent on class availability via these external sources, according to Navy documentation and interviews with officials,” stated the GAO.
“As a result, the Navy cannot ensure that sailors’ training can be scheduled in an appropriate sequential order and without gaps,” GAO said, adding, “Navy officials cite this as a primary challenge.”
While the Navy continues to face those challenges, GAO noted the service branch’s continued resolve to work on developing its cybersecurity posture and implement some of the GAO’s recommendations for improvement delivered in 2021 and 2022.
Responding to the latest report, the Navy concurred with the recommendation for the need to analyze career paths in two to three years with better data for the civilian workforce, but it did not concur with the following recommendations.
- Increase junior-level hiring;
- Create more senior-level positions, including technical positions;
- Study effects of pay caps on retention, and if warranted, petition for raising pay caps for senior- level employees; and
- Increase use of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act for database support.
