The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness announced the Civilian Cyber Resilience Corps Wednesday, noting it will be overseen by the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC). Participating volunteers will work with the state to help it prevent and recover from cyber attacks. Work mentioned by the announcement includes incident response, vulnerability assessment, cyber training and more. Volunteers must undergo screening and training to participate.
New Jersey joins a handful of other states that already use expert-level IT and cyber volunteers to assist local governments, critical infrastructure providers and other organizations. This new initiative is similar to efforts in Michigan, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Texas.
State and local governments continue to face rising cybersecurity threats and escalating costs tied to defending networks, hiring qualified staff and recovering from incidents — challenges that often leave smaller jurisdictions without sufficient support.
“Integrating volunteers into the NJCCIC’s operational framework significantly increases the state’s capacity to support local government entities, schools, critical infrastructure providers and civil society organizations in preventing and responding to cybersecurity incidents,” New Jersey CISO Michael Geraghty said in a statement. “This program strengthens our whole-of-state approach to cyber defense and resilience.”
A volunteer advisory council will offer nonbinding expert guidance, according to the cyber corps charter, while NJCCIC will manage recruitment, training, deployments, confidentiality and operational protocols. The document also details eligibility requirements, service agreements, deployment criteria, legal protections for volunteers and confidentiality provisions, establishing a framework that emphasizes secure information handling, coordination with state partners and expectations for both volunteers and entities receiving assistance.
Geraghty recently spoke on a panel and discussed how his agency is part of the larger homeland security organization and the decision to use civil volunteers to enhance “whole of society cybersecurity.”
“We have experts that are working on Wall Street, pharmaceuticals and working in all sorts of industries,” he said. “So, what we’re going to do is actually use that talent and use that expertise so … that we can be better prepared and respond to incidents within the state of New Jersey.”
