The announcement of a new U.S. Cyber Challenge by a coalition of government and private groups last month marks the latest salvo in what many agree is an increasingly serious shortage of skilled cybersecurity experts.

The difficulty of finding qualified cybersecurity professionals isn’t confined to government agencies. But as every federal chief information officer has learned firsthand, a combination of constraints and extraordinary demands have made it especially challenging for agencies to attract the talent the government needs.

Ron Sanders, chief human capital officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said the intelligence community has more than 1,000 open cybersecurity positions.