Competition Aims To Make Cybergeeks Cool

itwbennett writes "The organizers of the Cyber Foundations program have some lofty goals. In addition to identifying a new generation of security experts, they want to make cybergeeks as cool as sports stars, said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a sponsor of the competition. The competition includes tests in computer networking, operating systems and systems administration. Registration is open until Feb. 18. and prizes include four full-ride college scholarships sponsored by the U.S. Navy, gift certificates, and letters of recognition from governors and members of the U.S. Congress."

Comments

You can start with the name

[jack2000]

Stop plastering "cyber" everywhere.

Re:You can start with the name

[I8TheWorm]

Technosapien?

Re:You can start with the name

[rtb61]

Back to reality of course, the want to scam a bunch of really smart students who are most likely to be marketing resistant into believing they can be as 'cool' as their jock strap counter parts, even though career prospects means they'll be getting paid 1/10th as much, be shunned by mass media and women that pursue cash or fame will still have no interest in them.

Reality is, if they want to convince suitable types, they will have to convince them there is a solid well paying career. That they won't get dumped or their salary package screwed with by politicians, whenever it's politically convenient. That they will have a pleasant work environment and will not be stood over by administrative political appointees seeking to claim credit for the work and blame them for the idiot political appointees mistakes.

For the cybergeeks (argh, just die already) there are already very popular places to work for, be it google type private corporations, high tech corporations like boeing and when it comes to security, well, take your pick of multinational banks. If security is your thing not only will pay and conditions be far better at the banks but there are also many opportunities for overseas postings. Basically as you work your way through the list, only the anal left overs end up at government, except of course the main professionally paranoid government institutions which can still manage to snag a few top flight types.

Want to promote the security industry, then sponsor a TV series targeted at mid-teen sci fi types, that isn't dumbed down and creates a false 'er' exaggerated impression of career desirability. Sponsor computer games that also give a false 'er' exaggerated impression of rewards for security success.

Already cool

[Hatta]

Linus Torvalds is already cooler than any football player.

That's nice, but

[damn_registrars]

Really if we want to improve the image of a group of people, I would like to see a conscious effort to get people to look up to scientists. We try to say that we encourage great scientific research but we can't even bother putting great scientists on stamps? Mickey Mouse has been on how many stamps, yet I don't recall ever seeing an Einstein stamp.

But postage aside, we really end up - consciously or not - marginalizing scientists in our country. We don't give them the prestige they deserve, and we make them fight like American Idol contestants (to say nothing of the fact that many people can name more living Idol contestants than living scientists) for the kind of money that professional athletes would laugh at. Other countries hold their top researchers in great prestige; this may end up being just another sign of the decay of our empire here.

Re:Yeah, right.

[Anonymous Coward]

If geeks were cool they wouldn't be geeks. Part of being a geek is the whole uncoolness thing.

Besides which, "performing useful/important work" will disqualify you from being cool and popular. We'd rather pay people millions of dollars to chase a football around and thousands of dollars to secure vital infrastructure.

Our priorities are so fucked up like that. If we had severe natural selection competition from a competing species, we'd deserve to die out. We idolize and worship our most useless elements while oppressing and ridiculing our most useful.