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How Does the CIA Keep Its IT Staff Honest?
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.'"
"Cushy pension"? Federal Employees get 1% for each year of service i.e. work 30 years and get 30% of your annual salary as a pension. They also get a 4% contribution to a 401(k). Better than nothing, but not really "cushy". Employees who are required to carry guns get a better deal, but TFA had to do with "IT" employees.
"Cushy pension"? Federal Employees get 1% for each year of service i.e. work 30 years and get 30% of your annual salary as a pension. They also get a 4% contribution to a 401(k). Better than nothing, but not really "cushy". Employees who are required to carry guns get a better deal, but TFA had to do with "IT" employees.
$150K salary at retirement, 30% = $45K / year guaranteed. That's more than the average working household, so it is pretty cushy. It may even be more than the new IT guy fresh out of college. So each retiree is like a currently employee on the staff.
Plus keep in mind that these people have paid off their house, put their kids through college, etc. So the 30% of your final salary goes a lot farther than you may think.
"By only employing people selfish and/or stupid enough to want to work for the CIA."
I can assure you they do not hire stupid people.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
The DOE tried to push polygraphs on its cleared employees, and met with a lot of resistance from the scientists:
http://www.spse.org/Polygraph_comments_Livermo.html
The DOE can require polygraphs of its cleared employees in some circumstances, but to my knowledge it's rare that they actually do this.
("I work for the CIA!" - with an ID with CIA on it to show chicks in a bar?)
Last I saw, CIA badges (i.e., the thing that gets you into the building and opens doors, not a shiny gold thing) had a picture, an ID number and a barcode and nothing else on them.
They may have changed, but if they haven't, there's nothing on them to indicate that they are CIA badges.
They're spies, aka liars, thieves and criminals.
You do realize that the National Clandestine Service (the actual "spies") is only one of 4 departments in the CIA, as well as the smallest department. Most of CIA is comprised of analysts, communications and support staff, and researchers/scientists. And even within the NCS, not every person is an officer, posted overseas and actively engaged in espionage. A lot of them are going to work at headquarters, working on the take brought in by the field officers.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
By only employing people who are willing to work for money, and paying them well?
I don't believe having money relates to being honest
Actually, they are related - but the correlation coefficient is negative. ;-)
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Just think of a payoff: They'll pay you a million dollars for X information. You get caught, go to prison for 20 years at least. That's only $50,000 a year. You could have made a lot more than that as a cleared admin, and avoided a romantic relationship with Bubba.
In reality, they don't usually pay that much for a run-of-the-mill information passer. Jonathan Pollard got $1,500 a month from the Israelis, and got life in prison. Robert Hanssen was a very high level spy, not just an admin, so he got $1.4 million over 22 years, and the rest of his life in prison (where he will die).
And if you think you're so smart that you have a very low chance of getting caught, then you're an idiot. Hanssen himself was a counterintelligence agent, and that helped him go for as long as he did, but he still got caught.
BTW, one of the things they check is unaccounted indicators of wealth, and they do ask friends and neighbors, and check your financials. I remember a new soldier was investigated back in the 80s because he showed up one day with a new BMW 7-series. This wasn't even caught during a reinvestigation, they just noticed. Turns out dad was rich and gave him the car as a reward for joining the Army. With such a clear reason he was okay, but had he not been able to show a solid source for the money he would have been in a whole heap of trouble.
I don't think you understand the word "science". Science is more than repeatable results.
No, actually, when scientific methods have been used, it has not shown to be effective at detecting lies. In fact, it has been shown many times that it is trivially easy to fool. The polygraph may detect certain responses, but there is no science that links those responses to lying. In other words, science, when applied to the polygraph shows that it is not effective.
The real problem with relying on crutches such as the polygraph is that a negative result is more likely to allow a real spy (who would know how to "pass" a polygraph test) to continue undetected than not using the tool at all.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Binary holograms over the whole badge are easy to apply and if you hire competent security people, it will be easily spotted.
we did that at comcast for high level tech jobs, the Id did not say comcast anywhere on the rfid badge. when you looked at it in direct light you could see a pattern of 1's and zeros repeating across it.
The guards were trained to look for that. Plus the image on the badge had to match the one in file at the security entry or the guard did not open the man trap but instead called the local police to retrieve you.
At least that is how it was at the On demand central NOC... All those first run movies in mpeg2 form without any encryption or DRM.....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.