Joint statement

A high-quality and diverse cyber security workforce is essential for our nations’ efforts to ensure we maintain resilience against cyber threats, safeguard national security, and protect economic growth in our digital economies. The development of the cyber security workforce is a global issue, with personnel shortages and capability gaps reported across the world. 

To address this sustainably requires clear and consistent identification of the knowledge and skills needed by the cyber security workforce and the tasks for which this workforce is responsible across the range of cyber security roles. While many nations have developed and adopted standards, frameworks, or other mechanisms to address these challenges, without international cooperation we risk duplicative or contradictory efforts and introducing complexity that risks making it difficult for individuals and employers to navigate and implement.  

In September 2024, we (named signatory partners below) held an inaugural summit of an International Coalition to discuss the critical importance of developing and maintaining a skilled cyber security workforce. Hosted by Wilton Park in the United Kingdom, this summit brought together colleagues and partners representing 13 countries in addition to multilateral organisations and certification bodies to share lessons and perspectives with the goal of identifying opportunities for future coordination and collaboration.  

The dialogue highlighted the value that a coalition of countries can bring to supporting common language for the cyber security workforce ecosystem that furthers career discovery, education and training, improved hiring, and career development, while supporting adaptability to enable flexible applications that meets varied national and regional needs.  

Key recommendations from the report of the dialogue include: 

• Creating a shared glossary of terms for common understanding of the cyber security workforce 

• Building an understanding of similarities and differences in countries’ approaches to setting standards in cyber security workforces 

• Setting a common baseline for the minimum quality standard for cyber security professionals 

• Establishing an approach to make national frameworks and standards interoperable 

• Establishing a plan for both private and public sectors to adopt frameworks and standards 

• Promoting these efforts to encourage new joiners and tracking progress towards professionalisation. 

Achieving progress in pursuing these recommendations and other yet-to-be-identified efforts will be supported by the formal establishment of the International Coalition on Cyber Security Workforces (ICCSW). This voluntary coalition will foster international dialogues about cyber workforces.  

As signatories of the International Coalition on Cyber Security Workforces (ICCSW), we commit to cooperate in principle on: 

• Aligning vision and approaches through the International Coalition on Cyber Security Workforces (ICCSW). We commit to the Terms of Reference, which looks to align our vision and approaches where we can to further international cooperation.  

• Referencing common terminology. We commit to reference and encourage the adoption of common terminology as identified in the shared glossary of terms to ensure greater understanding between different cyber security skills frameworks and approaches.  

• Share lessons learned and approaches. We commit to engage with other signatories to share learnings, ideas, ongoing challenges, and to coordinate on action where appropriate. 

• Commit to ongoing dialogue. We commit to convene on a regular basis to foster the development of a skilled global cyber workforce.  

Signatories 

Canada 

Dubai, Government of 

Ghana 

Japan 

Singapore 

United Kingdom^{[footnote 1]}