Cyber Security Experts leaving US government employ

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NSA, the American National Security Agency, is losing more cyber security experts every year, than it is hiring. The experts seem to be lured away by the much better employment terms they can get in the commercial market. “We’re throwing the kitchen sink at them from our standpoint,” said NSA’s human resources technical director, John Yelnosky. “And they’re writing in to us, as they leave NSA… ‘I’m leaving to double my salary.’”

Yelnosky spoke Tuesday during a panel discussion hosted by the Partnership for Public Service on the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals in government. According to Defense One a recent report called attention to the most pressing challenges the government faces in hiring cyber talent. The report points to the outdated federal hiring process, the rigid pay scale, and the lack of a governmentwide ‘master strategy’ for boosting the cyber workforce.

This can be surprising, since the NSA, along with other parts of the intelligence community and the Defense Department, have been granted flexibility, in order to bypass hurdles in the hiring process and adjust salary rates. The annual salary of the cyber experts leaving sometimes reaches as much as $130,000. And it’s not only the monetary investment that  makes it sting, according to Yelnosky. Most of those who depart do so after they’ve undergone extensive, specialized NSA training.

“The competition out there is really fierce and particularly for these folks that we make a big investment in, and we feel those losses very keenly,” Yelnosky explains.