Pell Center Fellow Cited in New Cyber Publications

Francesca Spidalieri, Fellow for Cyber Leadership was recently cited in The Cyber Security Forum Initiative’s (CSFI) report “Senior Cyber Leadership: Why a Technically Competent Workforce is Not Enough.”

This report suggests that while significant and necessary emphasis has been placed on technical skills needed within the cyber workforce, little attention has been given to the people that will lead the future workforce. It is leadership that must develop sound strategy and manage adequately skilled resources to mitigate the cyber threat. This report focuses on the level of Senior Cyber Leadership and defines this as someone who is responsible for enhancing the competitive advantage of an organization’s mission and business processes and functions by innovatively leveraging resources, information and information technology to deliver solutions that are effective, efficient, and secure.

The report begins with a quote from Ms. Spidalieri’s research study, One Leader at a Time: The Failure to Educate Future Leaders for an Age of Persistent Cyber Threat

“Cyber defense requires not only IT experts with computer science, electrical engineering, and software security skills, but also professionals with an understanding of political theory, institutional theory, behavioral psychology, ethics, international law, international relations, and additional social sciences…the pillars of our society…are often led by individuals with extremely limited exposure to cyber issues and the existential threats they pose…”  Francesca Spidalieri, Fellow for Cyber Leadership, Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy

Ms. Spidalieri has also contributed to the editing of the latest NATO Science for Peace and Security’s book “Best Practices in Computer Network Defense: Incident Detection and Response.” This book identifies the state-of-the-art tools and processes being used for cyber defense and highlights gaps in the technology. It presents the best practice of industry and government for incident detection and response and examines indicators and metrics for progress along the security continuum. It provides operators and decision makers whose work it is to strengthen the cyber defenses of the global community with genuine tools and expert advice. Keeping pace and deploying advanced process or technology is only possible when you know what is available. This book shows what is possible and available today for computer network defense and for incident detection and response.

You can learn more about the Pell Center Cyber Leadership Project and ongoing research and activities at http://pellcenter.org/cyber-leadership/.