Air and Space Forces raise bonus amounts for technically trained cyber troops
A senior airman with five years in cyber warfare is eligible for an $83,610 bonus for re-enlisting for six years, the same amount due airmen in the pararescue, combat control and tactical air control party fields. (J.M. Eddins Jr./U.S. Air Force)
The Air Force and Space Force are prepared to pay a premium to keep their cyber-trained professionals wearing blue, according to the updated list of bonus-eligible career fields.
Released Sept. 8, that list added two cyber-related career specialties for a total of 65 careers eligible for a re-enlistment bonus, including five existing cyber fields whose bonus potentials also increased.
“This [Selective Retention Bonus] addition is an acknowledgement of extreme demand for the advanced skills and talent within the targeted cyber specialties, as well as their criticality to the future force,” Air Force spokeswomen Laurel Falls told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday.
The largest bonus bumps within the cyber fields went to the cyber warfare and defense specialties. Airmen who re-up in those fields would receive the same amount as those in special tactics jobs, historically the riskiest jobs, whose practitioners were paid the highest bonuses.
A senior airman with five years in cyber warfare is eligible for an $83,610 bonus for re-enlisting for six years, the same amount airmen in the pararescue, combat control and tactical air control party fields.
“For some cyber specialties, cumulative individual training costs reach close to one million dollars and the unique National Defense experiences that further develop these member’s cyber proficiency are nearly incalculable,” Falls said.
The Air Force created cyber warfare operations as a career field in 2010. The career field remains open only to enlisted personnel serving in information technology professions.
Specialists in this field ensure computer networks function properly and remain secure from outside intrusion, according to the Air Force website.
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[Editorial] There Is No Privacy Without Stronger Security — That’s Why We’re Joining Forces With the Security Community To Keep You Safe
▲ Seungwon Shin,1 VP and Head of Security Team at Mobile eXperience Business, Samsung Electronics
Dangerous Times
It’s hard to imagine a better time for cyber-criminals. The conditions are ideal right now for anyone with ill intentions and technical know-how.
A rise in remote workers means more reliance on unsecure public Wi-Fi. New frontiers like the blockchain leave confused customers ripe for scams. Cyber-attacks are on the rise. And not just where you expect them. Recent wars have started with digital attacks on critical infrastructure, months before physical incursion.
All this when we are putting more of our lives into our smartphones. They are our wallets, our house keys and our IDs. A single intrusion can be devastating, so now more than ever we need our devices to be secure. Let’s examine what truly makes a device safe — so that you can go out into the world and live freely, without worrying about your data getting into the wrong hands.
What Security Is… and What It Isn’t
By now you’re likely thinking you’re fine, because you’re sensible. But there are many common misconceptions about security. You don’t let apps share your name, email, or habits. You even disable app tracking permissions. Great, but that doesn’t mean your data’s safe. Please don’t confuse privacy for security. Closing your curtains will do no good if someone kicks your door down. You think you have chosen a safe mobile ecosystem, one akin to a walled garden. But hackers adapt to their targets. Unsecure Wi-Fi, social engineering scams — these are threats regardless of what ecosystem you use.
You don’t open suspicious attachments. Great, but there are ‘zero-click’ attacks, which compromise a device without user interaction. That happened with Pegasus, spyware that exploited a flaw in a popular messaging system. All it took was for users to receive a message, and the hackers got in. Feeling safer than you are leads to complacency — that’s what cyber-criminals are counting on.
It’s unsettling to think that there are so many threats and no safe harbor. But that’s what inspires our work on Samsung…
Which States Have Cybersecurity Task Forces?
To protect against cyber threats, many state governments have formed specialized task forces to address issues like ransomware, phishing and other forms of cyber attacks. But what have these groups accomplished so far?
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures website, at least 30 states have created a statewide cybersecurity task force, commission, advisory council, or similar group in the past several years. Most were established through executive orders, the website states, but at least eight states created these initiatives through legislation.
The states that have implemented these types of working groups include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
A PERSISTENT THREAT
When it comes to cybersecurity in state and local government, industry experts point to myriad challenges, including ransomware attacks, open source software vulnerabilities, phishing emails, outdated legacy code and other issues.
Some of these issues were recently discussed at the RSA Conference, where experts weighed in on zero-trust security architectures, long-awaited cybersecurity grant funding, cyber insurance and addressing misinformation.
To put the issue further into perspective, computer security service company SecuLore Solutions found that 49 states and Washington, D.C., have been affected by cyber attacks in the past 24 months. Similar threats have also impacted 90 public safety agencies and 199 local governments.
Other statistics from a November 2021 international report from CyberEdge reaffirmed this trend stating that more than 68 percent of surveyed government organizations were compromised by one or more cyber attacks within the past 12 months. The report surveyed 1,200 public- and private-sector IT security professionals from 17 countries and focused on organizations with at least 500 employees. Government respondents made up more than 4 percent of…