McAuliffe hosts education, workforce cyber roundtable

Governor McAuliffe hosted an Education and Workforce Cyber roundtable at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria on Wednesday. The roundtable is the second in a series of roundtables promoting Governor McAuliffe’s Meet the Threat: States Confront the Cyber Challenge initiative as Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA).

The roundtable included 30 cyber and education experts to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities in addressing the workforce challenges. Participants included college presidents, education organization leaders, and cybersecurity industry CEOs. The discussion focused on ways to address protecting schools from cyber-attacks and increasing the cyber workforce.

Cybersecurity has been a main priority for Governor McAuliffe since the beginning of his administration. In February 2014, Governor McAuliffe signed Executive Order 8 establishing Cyber Virginia and the Virginia Cyber Security Commission. The Commission began developing recommendations that improve the cybersecurity workforce pipeline beginning with K-12 education.

“Since the beginning of my administration, I have focused on protecting the Commonwealth from cyber-attacks, including high-risk targets like schools and financial databases, as well as improving our communications infrastructure and investing in critical workforce skill development,” Governor McAuliffe said, speaking at today’s roundtable. “These roundtables are designed to address the specific needs and challenges of the cyber sector and workforce development in Virginia. With thousands of high-paying, new jobs to fill in this sector, it is imperative that our workforce programs are adequately training Virginians in cyber fields to meet the needs of our new Virginia economy.”

Governor McAuliffe became NGA Chair in July 2016. The Governor’s Meet the Threat: States Confront the Cyber Challenge initiative places states at the center of finding solutions to the increasingly sophisticated cyber threats facing the nation. The initiative’s primary goal is for states to develop strategies for strengthening cybersecurity practices as they relate to state IT networks, health care, education, public safety, energy, transportation, critical infrastructure, workforce training and economic development.

For additional information about Meet the Threat, visit NGA’s webpage here.