Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FBI Need Potheads To Fight Cybercrime

Posted by Soulskill on from the government-dorito-budget-not-up-to-snuff dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The rate of cybercrime is growing and growing, and law enforcement is struggling to keep up. The FBI is in the process of beefing up its headcount, but they're running into a problem: many of the hackers applying for these jobs have a history of marijuana use, and the agency has a zero tolerance policy. FBI Director James Comey said, 'I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview.' However, change may be on the horizon: Comey said the FBI is changing 'both our mindset and the way we do business.' He also encouraged job applications from former pot users despite the policy."

9 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Let me know when you win that war on drugs? by davydagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait a second, I thought potheads were worthless burnouts who will never amount to anything?

    Looks like one bullshit stereotype driven war is affecting our ability to fight another bullshit stereotype driven war.

    The irony is fucking killing me.

    1. Re:Let me know when you win that war on drugs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes you have, you just don't know it because they aren't advertising that they smoke.

    2. Re:Let me know when you win that war on drugs? by NotInHere · · Score: 5, Funny

      Smoke from what? Too much current? Its pretty hard to make a pothead smoke!

    3. Re:Let me know when you win that war on drugs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When has admitting that you smoke pot to a law enforcement officer ever turned out to be "good" for you? Seriously, if you hack and smoke pot, don't work for the FBI. Not until pot becomes legal everywhere in the US.

    4. Re:Let me know when you win that war on drugs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm an accomplished software developer, i smoke pot, i make 6 figures have a family and kids. I have many friends who smoke pot, they include directors of large telecommunications companies, several engineers of different disciplines, and of course other developers. We all have nice houses, cars some of us have boats, yachts and horses. We all hang out and smoke pot together, work on recreational software/hardware projects some private some public, some open source some closed.

      We have an uncanny ability to find our own kind like most other subcultures and like many we don't advertise it.

    5. Re:Let me know when you win that war on drugs? by Immerman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      More likely you're a straight-laced prude that no professional who smoked would reveal themselves to for fear of being turned in to the authorities. If I were to guess from my own experiences I'd say somewhere around 20-40% of computer professionals I've known smoke at least on the weekends - more among the creative programmer types.

      Ask yourself this - how many computer professionals would you estimate drink alcohol? Now, how many of those would you be able to guess if they never mentioned the fact around you? And how many do you suppose would mention the fact in your presence if it were illegal? The fact is you can't tell what drugs somebody uses just by looking at them, unless they are heavy addicts. A stoner, drunk, etc. is obvious, but they're never going to make it in the professional world anyway. The responsible users who have a glass of wine or smoke a bowl after dinner look just like everyone else once they sober up.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    6. Re:Let me know when you win that war on drugs? by meta-monkey · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, no and double no. You will never, ever get out of an arrest for drug possession by admitting to possessing drugs. It doesn't matter if the nice police officer man says he'll "go easy on you if you just admit it," he won't. He's lying to you, because he's allowed to lie to you. There is no reward system in place for "how many honest drug users did you let off the hook today?" There is only a reward system for "how many violators of the law did you apprehend today?"

      Do. Not. Talk. To. Cops.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  2. Re:Drunk by Jmc23 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    About as immature as all those people showing up to work buzzed on caffeine.

    Different bodies function differently. Just like the majority of people need something to speed them up, some people need something to slow them down.

    --
    Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
  3. Re:Interview on Weed?! by Shados · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unrelated to the topic, but being qualified for the job and being qualified for the interview is 2 totally different things in the IT and software development field, since there's so many bad interviewers out there.

    I wish I could screen for the interview before agreeing to do it. Would save me a lot of trouble.