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The FBI Wants To Know About Your IT Skills

Posted by Soulskill on from the and-how-you-take-your-coffee dept.

AHuxley writes "The FBI, via the Office of Management and Budget, would like to find out more about your information technology expertise if you are part of InfraGard. Terms like 'practical utility' have been included in a 60-day emergency notice of information collection via the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Is your boss or cubicle colleague part of InfraGard? It's a private, non-profit organization run as a public-private partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Are they passing info back about you or your company?"

10 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Echoes of B5's "Night Watch" for IT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe it's not that sinister but that's the first thing that popped into my head. Looking at the website, it's initial intentions aren't that sinister but mandating that much sharing of information sounds a bit creepy. You guys are going to be DHS'd/FBI'd to death if you're not careful.

    1. Re:Echoes of B5's "Night Watch" for IT? by jessecurry · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Conservatives *should* be the champions of small government, and by extension individual liberties... but those calling themselves conservatives in the US these days are way off base.

      --
      Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
    2. Re:Echoes of B5's "Night Watch" for IT? by baboo_jackal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just out of curiosity, when *are* you going to start holding Obama accountable for the state of things? It sounds to me like you've set up a perfect moving-goalpost situation where "badness" == "Bush's Legacy" whenever it's convenient.

      I'm definitely not a big fan of Republicans and their degenerate relationship with religious folks these days, but is it really productive to mask the bad behavior of one political party by blaming it on another?

  2. First post! by Godji · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The part I don't understand is why anyone would voluntarily become a part of InfraGrad and start "sharing information" about others in the first place.

    1. Re:First post! by woody.jesus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, if you are a member of InfraGrad and your boss isn't, then he suddenly has to be aware that you might snitch on him at any time. Now he has to treat you with some respect for a change! Or if the boss is already a party member, then as a fellow Infragrader, you'll be preferred for promotions and raises. Maybe you were a weak little sniveling rodent before, but now you're a member of INFOGRAD and you can strut around in your imaginary jackboots because you're just a little bit better than those common people!

      --
      "You never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow up something" (Spencer Tracey, 'Inherit the Wind')
    2. Re:First post! by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      More like The Party. Not only refering to the NSDAP but also to any parties in one party dictatorships. It was not much different in the Soviet states. You were a member of The Party and you suddenly had a much higher chance of promotion, of scientific credibility, of other merits that are credited on the whim of someone or a group of people.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Did any of you actually READ the link? by cravey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They only want information about the IT skills of their own members. How else would they process ONLY 28,000 responses at 2 minutes each? This doesn't even seem to apply to all Infragard members, only:

    "Public and private professionals
    self-identified as having information technology expertise."

    This would also be why it's called:
    "InfraGard Knowledge/Skills/
    Abilities Profile"

    IT seems kindof obvious that they might want to know what the skills of their own members are if they need assistance on something. Not like the FBI knows anything about technology.

    Perhaps they're looking for resources for the next time they have an IT issue/project they need to not fuck up. According to their website, you need a background check to join. Seems like a good way to build a database of IT professionals that you don't need to do background checks on after the fact.

  4. It's not what you collect, but what you do with it by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Stasi were very good at collecting information. In fact, they were too good. They collected so much that their analysts couldn't effectively evaluate even a fraction of it. They lacked IT resources (when compared to Western agencies) and the Stasi leadership should have shifted more manpower from spying to analyzing.

    The FBI has access to unlimited IT resources, and the US intelligent community if very effective at evaluating the information that they have collected. Just look at how they stopped the underwear bomber . . .

    . . . uh-oh . . . never mind . . .

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  5. Re:Why is this necessarily a bad thing? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What I find striking is the utter lack of information that the FBI's website gives about what Infragard is really about. They give few details about what sort of information they are looking for, and what sort of information they give back to their members. That alone makes it difficult for me to trust...

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  6. Re:Jesse Ventura by surmak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who when passing through an airport security checkpoint is the only one who is more afraid of the TSA than I am of the terrorists. I have a far greater fear of getting arrested for forgetting to remove a leatherman from my bag or not emptying my water bottle than I am afraid of the plane getting blown up be some nutcase.