The Cyber Corps, which is part of the Cyber Service Initiative (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2001/nsf0111/nsf0111.htm), is under way at six university training centers. Announced in January 1999 by President Bill Clinton, the goal of the program is to train students to become computer-security experts, a shortage of which is projected to continue. 

The goal, says Andrew Bernat, program director at the National Science Foundation, is to "get highly qualified and trained employees in the area of information assurance, which includes computer security, into the federal workforce. The intent is they pay back the government by working for a year as a regular employee. They don't work for free."

The Cyber Corps is similar to the military's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) in that students who sign up receive a grant covering tuition, room and board, and any required travel, along with a monthly stipend -- up to $25,000 a year. In return, they do a year of government service for each year they spend in the program. Students, who must be either college juniors or in their first year of graduate school, may enroll for one year or two of training in computer security and crime prevention. They also do summer internships with a federal agency.

The six universities initially involved in the program are the University of Tulsa, Iowa State, Purdue, the University of Idaho, Carnegie Mellon, and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, CA. For its first year, the program is paying out $8.6 million in scholarships to a total of 39 students. The National Science Foundation handles program proposals and review; the Office of Personnel Management is in charge of the students and their placement in federal agencies. The Department of Defense runs a similar program.

"My projection will be an additional 40 to 60 students next year," Bernat says. "The issues in computer security are enormous, September 11 aside. This is a step. It's not the only step and it's not the biggest step, but it is a step to helping solve the problem." Bernat expects that the program will add four schools if it receives the funding requested for the new cycle. The due date for school proposals is December 19, and information is on the NSF website.