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The FBI's IT Expansion Plans

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the change-of-careers dept.

Lam1969 writes "The FBI is fast-tracking the hiring of IT professionals, reports Computerworld. Computer scientists, engineers, IT specialists and IT project managers are wanted to develop systems to support FBI analysts and agents working in the field. Large-scale database development projects are part of the FBI's IT expansion as well. From the article: "The FBI is also focusing on data warehousing as well as federated search technology, which allows a single search query to be deployed across a number of databases, regardless of whether those databases belong to the same protocol or platform.""

4 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I wonder what these are for? by vought · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Seriously though, I'm really kinda scared. But I'm more sad that it'll take a near miracle for some more oversight to be required in US intelligence agencies. The worst part is that by speaking out, you are probably being targeted.

    Oh, come on now. I'm sure the Bush administration would never, ever ask a Federal agency to do something explicitly forbidden by law. Nor would they ever use secrets for political gain. To suggest otherwise would be blatantly partisan!

    Oh - and as far as the FBI fast-tracking new hires to deal with sensitive information? Two words: Robert Hanssen.

  2. Re:Real ID act by BWJones · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sounds like a driver's license, minus the biometrics.

    Hardly. This is so much more in that it will access a common database that is available everywhere in the nation to any law enforcement official that requests your information or ID and additionally makes that information available to private security companies and other companies that contract with the federal government. There are also a number of other problems associated with this legislation in that it was attached to an appropriations bill and has gone through very little oversight. Lots of folks actually have no idea of what is actually contained in this legislation or who was involved in its creation.

    At the very minimum, there is now the possibility of the federal government tracking the movement and ID of any US citizen at any time and preempts judicial involvement in the process.

    --
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  3. Total Information Awareness by Yonder+Way · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Come on, you don't think Bush really turned his back on the TIA project so easily, do you?

  4. old news by recharged95 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Data warehousing and federated searching have been issues in government over the last 10years. Hmm.. could it be since DBs are usually involved with government data/apps?

    This is not news, especially with the current environment since 2001. Now the challenge has always been non-technical for the FBI:

    hire really IT-savvy folks (i.e. with real experience, not DoD or college newbies) for gov't level salaries and ever-shrinking budgets--and considering the deployment environment is rather boring IMO. Of course, those engineers would be competing with [money hungry] companies like MicroStrategy that offer products they could buy vs. build.

    And throw in the culture/environment, it's a tough pill to swallow for a tech-person to be serious and enjoy the job.

    And really no one should be scared about these types of systems as long as their a policy/laws defined. I mean google already places a "surveillance" factor on the public domain and no one has a problem [yet].