Journal of The Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education
Educational Approaches to Transition Former Military Personnel into the Cybersecurity Field
The Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education (CISSE) has represented the constant in the changing field of cybersecurity education. CISSE was established in 1996. Its mission was (and still is) to provide the single authoritative forum for conducting meaningful dialogue between the wide range of government, industry, and academic entities, which are involved in the protection of our nation's information and its information and communication technology assets.
All of the communities of interest who participate in CISSE's workshops, academic and roundtable presentations receive direct advice from government, industry and other experienced educators about how to develop and deploy effective cybersecurity curricula. The Community meets every year at CISSE in order to learn about and further discuss the most effective means of maintaining a high standard of excellence in practice in cybersecurity education.
There are also a significant number of pure academic papers, which are presented as part of the CISSE conference. In order to have any credibility as a source of new and evolving knowledge it is important that the highest academic standards apply to the presentation of new knowledge to the membership. Thus the papers submitted to the conference undergo double blind refereeing process and the best of the best get exposure in individual sessions.
These sessions reflect the best possible scholarship in the field of cybersecurity and are highly competitive. The most outstanding scholarship is then subsequently published in the Journal of the Conference. Given that background it should be understood that this is a special edition of the Journal of the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education (CISSE). The ideas contained in this Journal represent the best thinking in the methods and practices for integrating veterans into the cybersecurity workforce.
The idea of tapping the existing pool of already highly skilled veterans for work in the field of cybersecurity is almost too obvious. Nonetheless, there are a number of systemic and cultural challenges that have to be overcome before this can take place. The general explication of what is required is outlined and discussed in the articles that are presented here.
The articles in this Journal address ways to more effectively leverage recent members of the military in order to ensure efficient integration of veterans into the cybersecurity workforce. And it is a particularly obvious and justified way to ensure a pipeline of high quality skilled cybersecurity researchers, and cybersecurity professionals for the future workforce.
Effective strategies for veteran education requires understanding the status of the existing communities of practice within the educational landscape, which is much more complex than people appreciate. Because the cultures of each of these communities of practice are so different, the awareness, training and education approach needs vary. The contents of this Journal focus on developing and maintaining a deep pool of talented veterans to serve the critical need for cybersecurity professionals. It will present and discuss an up-to-date set of approaches to ensuring a continuously capable workforce and it will present best practices for practical recruitment education and retention of trained cybersecurity professionals.
What you will find in this issue are 11 carefully selected papers that discuss aspects of how to bring recent military veterans into the mainstream. The articles here represent many avenues of thought. It is our considered opinion that this sort of wide-ranging dialogue constitutes the first steps in overcoming existing hurdles for veterans and it takes the first steps in ensuring that cybersecurity education will evolve into the kind of main tent attraction that we all want it to be. We would not have been able to do this alone, and so we would like to acknowledge Tamara Shoemaker for her outstanding work in managing the review process, and our colleagues who served as reviewers for this issue.
Co-Editors of this CISSE Special Edition:
Dan Shoemaker, Ph.D., Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Ph.D.
