Dr. Robert Cherinka is a Senior Principal Computer Scientist for the MITRE Corporation, located in Tampa, Fl. His expertise is in software and process engineering, with a focus toward agile development technologies. Bob is currently a Department Head for Agile Engineering and Innovation, leading a distributed team of IT professionals developing and applying emerging technologies across several major US Government domains. Bob earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, leading research in static analysis and testing techniques for component-based systems. In addition, he earned a B.S. in computer science in 1987 from the University of Pittsburgh. After 6 years in the US Air Force, he joined MITRE in 1993.

Mr. Joseph Prezzama is currently the Associate Department Head for the MITRE Corporation, Tampa Operations Office. In 1996 he earned a Master of Science in Software Engineering from Monmouth University, Eatontown, New Jersey. Prior to that, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Trenton State College, Ewing, New Jersey.

With increasingly complex cyber-attacks, an organization's entire IT and communications infrastructure could be compromised in a matter of minutes. Cyber threats have become a worldwide systemic problem, and one that we all need to be aware of, prepare for, and be part of the solution. To make matters worse, the demand for a cyber skilled workforce is high, much higher than the current supply and talent pool. We are all facing serious workforce challenges, but in the area of Cyber, this drought in talent could have very high implications. In this presentation, we will discuss aspects of building a professional cyber security workforce. In particular, we will highlight current cybersecurity workface challenges; examine the anatomy of a cybersecurity professional workforce in terms of the culture, people, processes and technology representing key enablers for building the talent, framework and capabilities necessary; introduce an approach for building a professional career path and talent pipeline in cyber security; and finally we will highlight our use of Cyber Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions as a corporate initiative aimed at adopting new approaches for hiring.