Cyber talent shortage, vulnerability accountability challenges in federal government detailed

U.S. Department of Commerce Chief Information Officer Andre Mendes said that the ongoing cybersecurity skills shortage across the government has prompted federal agencies to poach talent from other departments, reports FedScoop. "Its a very, very tough situation with cybersecurity hiring. It's extremely difficult getting the right people with the right skills right now," said Mendes at the FedTalks tech conference. Federal agencies have also been facing challenges in ensuring cybersecurity vulnerability accountability among their vendors and contractors, which is further exacerbated by the pushback on proposals aimed at strengthening cybersecurity, according to Mendes. "The administration has just started with the process and there will be an enormous amount of lobbying against it by vendors trying to minimize its effect. Vendors will do their best to minimize their exposure to change because they don't want to have the accountability, they haven't had accountability in the past, so why should they have it now? But the reality is that in the current environment, we can't afford not to have accountability," he added.