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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."
With lawyers now being outsourced, surgeries being done offshore in India, CS work all moving offshore, is there really a point to even bothering to go to college for a professional degree any more? If I were graduating high school right now, I think I'd just go to trade school to be an auto mechanic or plumber, or just say screw it and go work at the mall. Professional, college-degree-requiring jobs just aren't worth it any more. The pay isn't anything special, college is enormously expensive, the working conditions suck, the specialization and age discrimination means you can only work for about 10 years before you're stuck in your job and can't move anywhere and when change comes, you won't be able to find another job.
It seems to me we'd all be better off if everyone gave up on professions, and became tradespeople, retail workers, etc. Before long, the economy would collapse for lack of exports, the dollar would be massively devalued, and we could start over building home-grown industries.
Gun down a bunch of people you don't like and you're a dangerous madman on a rampage, who must be stopped at all costs.
Do the same thing, but following the government's objectives rather than your own (generally in a foreign country) and your violence-loving tendencies will earn you the title of 'brave hero and defender of democracy' and possibly a shiny medal.
They don't have a problem recruiting to the army. Maybe they just need a program and boot camps (root camps?).
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
A shortage of "CyberWarriors" is the answer to our fervent hopes and prayers.
Maybe we need "CyberCriminalInvestigators" or "CyberContractSecurityGuards" - just no "Warriors" for a "war" that is as pointless and inevitible in its outcome as the "wars" on poverty, drugs and crime.
You want a war? Declare one on investment banking. You'll save more lives, and do more to protect your way of life than any "CyberWar".
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
The reason that we don't have a proper cyber warfare command is that it's not profitable. The people and companies that run modern warfare are interested in winning the war, of course, but they're also interested in doing it cheaply. Automatic warfare systems and technicians (trained monkeys) fit that model. Even if the system is expensive, the people are cheap - and the people are the expensive part. Contracts these days are written as service contracts, not hardware contracts. That means that the Army brings in contractors to run Army-owned hardware.
If you had a choice to specialize in cheap-to-pay technicians (trained monkeys) or expensive-to-pay (American computer security specialists with advanced degrees) there's only one choice that the stockholders will allow. Everything in America is a business, including the formerly patriotic occupation of war-fighting. Honor now has a specific dollar value. I bet that even the Silver Stars and Purple Hearts they award are given out on a cost-benefit basis these days.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!