Playing NICE? A Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity from NIST

Editor’s Note: The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a partnership between government, academia, and the private sector focused on cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development.  Located in the Information Technology Laboratory  at NIST, the NICE Program Office operates under the Applied Cybersecurity Division, positioning the program to support the country’s ability to address current and future cybersecurity challenges through standards and best practices.

The mission of NICE is to energize and promote a robust network and an ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. NICE fulfills this mission by coordinating with government, academic, and industry partners to build on existing successful programs, facilitate change and innovation, and bring leadership and vision to increase the number of skilled cybersecurity professionals helping to keep our Nation secure.

The recently revised Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity is one example of NICE efforts to help better coordinate an integrated ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development.

Extracts from NIST Resources for Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity

New NICE Framework Released

Published as a NICE Framework Resource

“The revised NICE Framework provides an improved and simplified conceptual design that helps to better coordinate an integrated ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development,” said Rodney Petersen, Director of NICE, which is led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and is a partnership between government, academia, and the private sector.

The “cybersecurity workforce,” Petersen noted, “includes those whose primary focus is on cybersecurity as well as those in the workforce who need specific cybersecurity-related knowledge and skills in order to perform their work in a way that enables organizations to properly manage the cybersecurity-related risks to the enterprise.”

Revisions to the NICE Framework (NIST Special Publication 800-181) include:

• A streamlined set of “building blocks” comprised of Task, Knowledge, and Skill Statements
• The introduction of Competencies as a mechanism for organizations to assess learners
• A reference to artifacts, such as Work Roles and Task, Knowledge, and Skills statements, that will live outside of the publication to enable a more fluid update process

Read the complete original update by NIST

Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework)

Authored by Rodney Peterson, Danielle Santos, Matthew C. Smith, Karen A. Wetzel, and Greg White

Executive Summary

Each of us—individually and organizationally—performs important work that provides a contribution to society. However, as information and technology, including many evolving types of operational technology, grow increasingly complex and interconnected it can be difficult to clearly describe the work that is being performed or that we desire to accomplish, in these areas in particular. The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) recognizes that those performing cybersecurity work—including students, job seekers, and employees— are lifelong learners throughout their efforts to emphasize and address cybersecurity implications across many domains. This segment of people is referenced in this document both as “Learners” and at times as the “cybersecurity workforce”, though the latter is not meant to imply that the work roles and content included in the NICE Framework apply only to those fully embedded in the cybersecurity domain. The tasks that these learners perform are further referenced here as “cybersecurity work”, and the Framework provides a means to describing that work with precision to support learner education or training and in the recruitment, hiring, development, and retention of employees. The NICE Framework has been developed to help provide a reference taxonomy—that is, a common language—of the cybersecurity work and of the individuals who carry out that work. The NICE Framework supports the NICE mission to energize, promote, and coordinate a robust community working together to advance an integrated ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. The NICE Framework provides a set of building blocks for describing the tasks, knowledge, and skills that are needed to perform cybersecurity work performed by individuals and teams. Through these building blocks, the NICE Framework enables organizations to develop their workforces to perform cybersecurity work, and it helps learners to explore cybersecurity work and to engage in appropriate learning activities to develop their knowledge and skills. This development, in turn, benefits employers and employees through the identification of career pathways that document how to prepare for cybersecurity work using the data of Task, Knowledge, and Skill (TKS) statements bundled into Work Roles and Competencies.

The use of common terms and language helps to organize and communicate the work to be done and the attributes of those that are qualified to perform that work. In this way, the NICE Framework helps to simplify communications and provide focus on the tasks at hand. Finally, use of the NICE Framework improves clarity and consistency at all organizational levels—from an individual to a technology system to a program, organization, sector, state, or nation.

NIST Special Publication 800-181 Review 1 (PDF)

Read the complete original NIST Special Publication 800-181 Revision 1 

Additional Reading

• Challenged by Privacy? The NIST Privacy Framework
• A Framework for Improving Cybersecurity: Infrastructure Considerations from NIST

Source: ComplexDiscovery