Characterizing cybersecurity jobs: applying the cyber aptitude and talent assessment framework

Characterizing what makes cybersecurity professions difficult involves several components, including specifying the cognitive and functional requirements for performing job-related tasks. Many frameworks that have been proposed are focused on functional requirements of cyber work roles, including the knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with them. In contrast, we have proposed a framework for classifying cybersecurity jobs according to the cognitive demands of each job and for matching applicants to jobs based on their aptitudes for key cognitive skills (e.g., responding to network activity in real-time). In this phase of research, we are investigating several cybersecurity jobs (such as operators vs. analysts), converting the high-level functional tasks of each job into elementary tasks, in order to determine what cognitive requirements distinguish the jobs. We will then examine how the models of cognitive demands by job can be used to inform the designs of aptitude tests for different kinds of jobs. In this poster, we will describe our framework in more detail and how it can be applied toward matching people with the jobs that fit them best.