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Cyberwarrior Shortage Threatens US Security
An anonymous reader writes "US security officials say the country's cyberdefenses are not up to the challenge. In part, it's due to a severe shortage of computer security specialists and engineers with the skills and knowledge necessary to do battle against would-be adversaries. The protection of US computer systems essentially requires an army of cyberwarriors, but the recruitment of that force is suffering. 'We don't have sufficiently bright people moving into this field to support those national security objectives as we move forward in time,' says James Gosler, a veteran cybersecurity specialist who has worked at the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Energy Department."
Instead, they tell them to go law because "there is no such thing as an unemployed lawyer."
There are now many unemployed lawyers. See the lawyer layoff list. There's now "legal process outsourcing, and it's not just clerical work any more. You can now send work to cheap lawyers in a Bangalore call center.
A lawyer I was using was recently laid off by his downsizing law firm. It happens.
Really?! For a country that penalizes this stuff more than anybody else, we sure do whole lot of it!
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_res_and_dev_exp_of_gdp-economy-research-development-expenditure-gdp
http://ideas.repec.org/a/eaa/eerese/v5y2005i5_9.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation#Measures
Perhaps next time you should engage your brain before spouting off Slashdot banalities designed to curry you favor with the mods!
On monster.com I had the grand total of 11 hits for the whole US.
Deja moo might be an understatement.
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
You know, as a U.S. citizen with a data systems security background, university degrees, CISSP, etc., I would happily apply for work with the U.S. government.
However, every position I've discovered requires an existing security clearance, something you cannot just go out and get, at any price.
There is a shortage. I do security code reviews and we have a challenging time finding good people. The prepress report talks about a lot more than dusty old government jobs.
Take off every 'sig' !!
First the applicants have to get a security clearance, which weeds out all non-citizens and a good deal of other applicants,
Don't forget that the Federal government is big on drug testing, and the people who'd do well at this job are likely to be users of a fairly harmless, naturally-growing herb which happens to be highly illegal, and whose users are routinely thrown in prison for long terms, causing other dangerous and violent criminals to be released early to make room for them.
Each one represents a backspace. Typing "hacker^H^H^H^H^H^H computer security expert" would imply that I initially typed 'hacker' and then changed my mind, deleted it and replaced it with 'computer security expert'.
You may also see ^W which deletes the whole word.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
How is this off-topic? At a certain level of government, homosexuality is enough to get you excluded from the game. That means there are likely some qualified candidates who are excluded based off a fairly arbitrary criteria.
That level is ONLY within the ranks of the military itself. It has nothing to do with civilian contractors. I personally know two trans-gendered people with clearances, deviation from the sexual norm is not a significant problem.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.