Software Engineering Institute

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI), in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), researched, designed, and developed a Cybersecurity Evaluator with the goal of assessing potential and current members of the cyber workforce within the scope of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NICE Framework). Initial research was conducted to ascertain how Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) aligned across the NICE Framework within their respective Categories, Specialty Areas and Work Roles. By identifying overlapping KSAs, the SEI discovered that a Cybersecurity Evaluator tool could provide a reasonable base-line assessment using just 65 questions, which target approximately 28% of the key KSAs within the NICE Framework. Assessment results will help an individual identify the NICE Category and potential roles that best align to their current talents and strengths.