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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.""

3 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Real ID act by BWJones · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is likely to implement the Real ID act which essentially amounts to a federally unfunded mandated ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account or participate in almost any way with any federal institution or service.

    The thing about this ID card is what kind of information will be encoded in it. At a very minimum, name, DOB, sex, ID number, image and address, but also additional information that will likely be included are biometrics with some folks even proposing genetic sequences. However, a major problem with these cards is the inclusion of machine readable technologies included in them that has the very real possibility of making ID theft easier. Additionally, the RealID act requires people to have a physical address. i.e. NO post office boxes unless you are a judge or government agent.

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    1. Re:Real ID act by Threni · · Score: 3, Interesting

      > 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.

      One way of avoiding all this online infringement would be for offline communication. Sort of like how Bin Laden has managed to evade detection for so long. I wonder how long it'll be before communicating offline will be considered suspicious. Already using cash is - in the UK it's been suggested that people carrying more than £1000 on them should be considered suspect. How long before a judge in a trial poses the question "If you weren't engaged in an illegal activity why didn't you just email/text/im/phone the suspect?".

      As always, of course, if you're not doing illegal then clearly you have nothing to worry about...

    2. Re:Real ID act by BWJones · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What about the homeless?

      This is a major problem with this legislation as they are likely to become non-persons.

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