The lack of skilled cybersecurity workers compared with high demand has caused a dangerous cybersecurity skills shortage. The danger goes beyond the headlines about the expanding skills gap that we’ve all seen for years. The danger is because we simply cannot stop incoming attacks with inferior skills. North Korean students who graduate from select primary schools at the top of their class in science and math are enrolled in the elite Keumseong High-Middle Schools in Pyongyang. When they graduate, they are sent to attend North Korea’s top technology universities. Following an expedited two-year program, they are sent to China or Russia for one year to solidify their knowledge of hacking.

The North Korean’s manifesto is that once one has established cyber-superiority one can steal money and classified information, disable the enemy, cause social panic by creating confusion and chaos through psychological warfare, and influence the outcome of elections. And they have proven that spectacularly in the past 24 months.

Look around our educational system. We spend $762 billion a year on public education and we rank 25th (2020) in math, science and reading.

Our objective in designing https://cybered.io/ was to make the best better. To be one trusted source, fully vetted by respected, high profile CISOs, delivering bespoke education to those who want to learn.

If you want to understand the enemy on the battlefield called Education, read my book, “Losing the Cybersecurity War (and what we can do to stop it)” available on Kindle and other usual places, or do your own research.

But if you think education is only a small part of the calculus, pay attention to General John Hyten, the 11th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he reported last year that in war games simulating a battle for Taiwan, the U.S. forces were swiftly and thoroughly dominated. He said, “Without overstating the issue, it failed miserably. An aggressive red team that had been studying the United States for the last 20 years just ran rings around us. They knew exactly what we’re going to do before we did it.”

A while ago, Nic Chaillan left the Air Force as the Chief Software Officer and on his way out, said “There have been continuous and exhausting fights to chase after funding ‘out-of-hide,’ because we are not enabled to fix enterprise IT teams within program offices.

Worse, some are starting to use the size of the DoD as an excuse to claim that enterprise services cannot succeed in the department. That is false and we have demonstrated it with Platform One. The Department of Defense, overall, needs to stop staffing enterprise IT teams as if IT is not a highly technical skill and expertise.”

The Platform One success is widely acknowledged by many former DOD staffers who also rue the practice of promoting Lieutenant Colonels into cybersecurity leadership roles with no experience in cybersecurity.