The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity has undergone a significant update, with the release of its version 2.0.0 introducing numerous enhancements aimed at standardizing how cybersecurity work and competencies are understood and managed.
This major revision of the NICE Framework by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establishes a streamlined structure to better define, recruit, and develop cyber talent.
What is the NICE Workforce Framework?
The NICE Framework is a critical resource for organizations, professionals, and educators involved in cybersecurity workforce development.
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It provides a common language to describe work roles, competency areas, and the associated tasks, knowledge, and skills (TKS) needed.
By aligning these components, the framework seeks to improve talent management across the cybersecurity domain.
Version 2.0.0 brings substantial updates to the framework’s components, ensuring alignment with evolving industry needs. Here’s a breakdown of the changes:
Work Role Categories
One of the most notable changes is the removal of two Work Role Categories—Cyberspace Effects and Cyberspace Intelligence—along with several associated Work Roles.
These removed elements can now be found in the Department of Defense Cyber Workforce Framework (DCWF), which focuses on more specialized defense-related roles.
Affected Work Roles include:
- Cyber Operations Planning
- Exploitation Analysis
- Mission Assessment
- Partner Integration Planning
- Target Analysis
- Target Network Analysis
- All-Source Analysis
- Multi-Disciplined Language Analysis
This shift allows NICE to focus on more universally applicable cybersecurity workforce roles and competencies, while defense-specific roles are managed under the DCWF.
New and Updated Work Roles
Version 2.0.0 introduces one new Work Role and revises two existing ones:
- New: Operational Technology (OT) Cybersecurity Engineering (DD-WRL-009)
- Revised: Digital Evidence Analysis (IN-WRL-002) and Insider Threat Analysis (PD-WRL-005)
The addition of OT Cybersecurity Engineering reflects the growing importance of securing operational technology systems in industries such as energy, manufacturing, and utilities.
Updates to existing roles aim to ensure relevance and clarity in rapidly evolving cybersecurity fields.
The Cyber Resiliency (NF-COM-007) Competency Area now includes refined elements to better address the skills required for building robust cyber defense systems.
Administrative Updates
NICE 2.0.0 introduces substantial administrative improvements:
- 111 new TKS statements added, and 275 redundant ones removed.
- Typographical errors corrected for better consistency.
Training providers whose courses are listed in the NICCS Education & Training Catalog will need to remap their curricula to align with the updated framework.
Organizations are encouraged to reach out to NICCS for guidance on incorporating these revisions.
While some of the interactive tools on the NICCS platform are still running version 1.0.0 data, updates are underway to ensure seamless integration of version 2.0.0.
A comprehensive summary of changes is available on the NICE Framework History & Change Logs page.
Cybersecurity professionals and organizations alike are encouraged to explore the updated framework to better prepare for the rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape.
By streamlining workforce definitions, NICE continues to set the standard for excellence in cyber talent management.
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