Both government and industry are experiencing a workforce gap when it comes to cybersecurity talent. To fill that gap, MITRE and other companies are turning to an underutilized talent pool—neurodiverse adults including people on the autism spectrum.
MITRE launched a pilot program in 2019 to begin recruiting neurodiverse candidates as interns, with the prospect of eventually hiring them in full time cybersecurity roles.
Our Autism at Work program was featured in the Wall Street Journal's Pro Cybersecurity newsletter.
The article highlights MITRE's pilot program as a case study, writing:
"A new MITRE initiative is providing support to current and prospective employees on the autism spectrum to tap into a talented—but underutilized—workforce."
John Wilson, MITRE's chief information and security officer, said the neurodiverse interns are fast learners who have come up with innovative ideas to solve problems while working on projects for their government sponsors. They work in tandem with cybersecurity engineers on tasks, such as conducting research on monitoring software, Mr. Wilson said. “One student found surprising software bugs that were later patched.”
Wall Street Journal Pro Cybersecurity: Leveraging Neurodiverse Cybersecurity Talent