How Does the CIA Keep Its IT Staff Honest?

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

How Does the CIA Keep Its IT Staff Honest?

Posted by timothy on Saturday December 17, 2011 @07:34AM from the vogonic-control dept.

Tootech points out this story for anyone who's been curious about getting that top-secret clearance and the promise of a cushy pension from the CIA, as a reward for decades of blood-curdling, heart-pounding, knuckle-whitening IT service: "Be prepared to go through a lot of scrutiny if you want to work in the Central Intelligence Agency's IT department, says chief information officer Al Tarasiuk. And it doesn't stop after you get your top secret clearance. 'Once you're in, there are frequent reinvestigations, but it's just part of process here,' says Tarasiuk, who also gets polygraphed regularly, though he won't be more specific. For those senior IT managers who are the 'privileged users,' meaning system administrators, 'there is certainly more scrutiny on you,' Tarasiuk says. 'It's interesting: there's so much scrutiny that a normal person might not want to put up with that. But it's part of the mission.'"

8 of 238 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

WTF? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-17 07:34 · Score: 5, Funny

What use would the CIA have for honest staff?
1. Re:WTF? by AliasMarlowe · 2011-12-17 07:48 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  What use would the CIA have for honest staff?
  The rest of them need someone to practice their dishonesty on?
  
  --
  Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
2. Re:WTF? by ark1 · 2011-12-17 08:48 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  What use would the CIA have for honest staff?
  You have to be honest to the organization but lie to everyone else.
Cool story bro by Rurik · 2011-12-17 07:41 · Score: 4, Funny

But 2008 wants its stories back.
Re:Honest? by YrWrstNtmr · 2011-12-17 07:48 · Score: 4, Funny

They're spies, aka liars, thieves and criminals.

Yes, but they are our liars, thieves and criminals. As opposed to the other guys liars, thieves and criminals.
Re:Honest? by rhyder128k · 2011-12-17 08:37 · Score: 4, Funny

Darling: So you see, Blackadder, Field Marshal Haig is most anxious to eliminate all these German spies.
Melchett: Filthy Hun weasels fighting their dirty underhand war!
Darling: And, fortunately, one of *our* spies--
Melchett: Splendid fellows, brave heroes, risking life and limb for Blighty!
Darling: ...has discovered that the leak is coming from the Field Hospital.

--
Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
Re:Hmmm by dgatwood · 2011-12-17 08:55 · Score: 4, Funny

Yes, but the silence speaks volumes. How many other workplaces do you know that don't include the company name anywhere on the badge?

--
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Re:Hmmm by MickLinux · 2011-12-17 09:05 · Score: 4, Funny

Wow. Does that mean that everyone who is unemployed right now could get people's attention by just making their own nameless ID badge?
My own ID is 3 steps more classified than that, though.
There's no bar code, no photo, and no ID number.
You don't need to know any more than that.

--
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's