“It would take a lot of effort, but I think there's potential here,” said Chesney, the cybersecurity program manager at Powder River Energy Corp. (PRECorp) in Wyoming. “Get these kids into cybersecurity programs, get their education paid, then they spend four years in a rural community.”

Chesney, who led a breakout session at the NRECA Co-op Cyber Tech conference called “Time, Talent and Money,” noted that the broader impact of such an initiative could be opening the eyes of young professionals to the allure of rural living and electric cooperative culture.

“You know what happens after four years of a rural community? You might like it. You might want to stay. You might go, ‘Wow.’ That’s what happened to me.”

Chesney noted that worldwide, there are about 13 cyberattacks on critical infrastructure every second. Meanwhile, the shortage of cyber professionals in the U.S. alone is around 225,000, with attrition rates increasing due to burnout and stress. And cybersecurity in rural areas is becoming more critical because those regions are home to most of the nation’s critical energy and water resources as well as food production.

“If the lights go out in rural America, it's more than just the lights,” he said. “If they hit this rural infrastructure, that's going to have severe repercussions across the economy.”

He admitted that his moonshot idea of a national Cyber Corps is not likely to happen any time soon but offered certain unique advantages co-ops have to attract candidates:

• Co-op culture: “We have got to get better at selling the cooperative experience,” he said. “Actually delving into the goodness of working for a cooperative. You talk to peers who work for Amazon or Dropbox, it's a grind. With the co-op environment, it’s a little bit more laid-back. We’re not going to be able to pay you the highest pay, but you’re going to have good benefits—medical, retirement—a good place to raise your family, the ability to innovate.”

• Growth opportunities: “We're small, but sometimes small is good. We can be a little more nimble. If you show the talent and the ability and the desire, we can make changes, and we can get you to where you want to be.”

Chesney also emphasized localized solutions, including mining state and local job boards and college and military job fairs for talent.

The DoD’s SkillBridge program—which will pay active-duty military personnel to work in civilian jobs, including the energy sector—is “a goldmine.”

And internships, apprenticeships and in-house retraining programs are extremely effective.

“Get high school kids as they graduate, and spend time training them, helping them pay for college or get certifications,” Chesney said. “Is a college degree really a necessity to do cyber? I would say no.”

He said ultimately, it will be the natural innovation of rural people and the co-op program that will fill the cyber talent gap.

“This problem isn’t going away,” Chesney said. “We’re never going to be able to compete on salary, so we need to use outside-the-box thinking. That’s the co-op deal.”