The Agency is committed to reach diversity for innovation
Cyber security organization experts report that the National Security Agency(NSA) is taking advantage of an avalanche of job applications to ensure the safety of their workforce for the purpose of innovating towards the future, as a part of a request of the general of the US Army, Paul Nakasone, who has just taken over the NSA.
Fort Meade, headquartered in Meade, Md. has a retention rate of 92%, reported general Nakasone, and receives about 17K job applications per month, of which 40% comes from organizations that promote diversity. The NSA ranks among the top 20 employers of computer science graduates, according to cyber security organization experts, and has won five external honors for excellence in their work. The NSA internship program attracts 9K applications a year from major universities, of which 1K is elected, 280 get an interview, and 70% of the interviewed people get hired.
“But it is the diversity of thought that encourages innovation”, added the general, which is why, as the workforce goes through training and gain experience, their managers continue to press long-term to attract a workforce with different perspectives. That includes recruiting journalists on cyber security organizationissues from organizations like “Girls Who Code”, nonprofit organization fighting against genre breach on computer science. “The workforce of the future must be representative of the diversity of our nation”.
Because of the agency’s vital partnerships with industry, academia, research centers, and foreign governments, the NSA’s workforce managers also make sure to maintain “a large workforce that has incentives to develop themselves professionally in this field”.
At a glance at the agency’s structure (information on the size of its workforce is classified, but it is estimated that the NSA employs between 30K and 40K people), Nakasone described a recent test to measure the level of awareness in cyber security organization of its employees, trying to maintain the highest standards in security. “The knowledge gained from America’s experience in the fights against Al Qaeda and ISIS is now being applied to confront today’s threats”, said the general.
Cyber security organization experts from the International Institute of Cyber Security commented that the NSA has also established partnerships with 14 countries and private companies to search for security in new technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), encryption and the upcoming 5g communications network, thus showing its level of commitment to innovation.
Working as a cyber security solutions architect, Alisa focuses on application and network security. Before joining us she held a cyber security researcher positions within a variety of cyber security start-ups. She also experience in different industry domains like finance, healthcare and consumer products.
