Department of Homeland Security Wants Geeks for a New 'Cyber Reserve'

[yann2]

From the Interesting Jobs Department :

Department of Homeland Security Wants Geeks for a New 'Cyber Reserve'
Posted by Greg_Thomas on Thursday, Nov 01, 2012

Navy Reserve. Image Credit: Information Warfare​

Just three weeks after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told an audience at the Sea, Air and Space Museum that the U.S. is on the brink of a “cyber Pearl Harbor,” the government has decided it needs to beef up the ranks of its digital defenses. It’s assembling a league of extraordinary computer geeks for what will be known as the “Cyber Reserve.”

What drove Panetta to summon one of the most notorious acts of war on American soil is the persistence of Iranian hackers, who have waged repeated cyber attacks on American financial institutions and who recently dropped a nasty virus on Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer. Computer savvy terrorists could burrow their way into systems that control vital U.S. infrastructure and do something crazy like derail a passenger train or shut down a power plant. “These attacks mark a significant escalation of the cyber threat,” Panetta said.

And so, 10 years after its inception, the Department of Homeland Security has decided that it needs to find a better way to stay on top of national security than farming out computer work to contractors.

The Cyber Reserve would function like a National Guard for computer-related emergencies — a collection of digerati scattered across the country but ready to respond when duty calls. This isn’t exactly a new idea. The same law Congress passed in 2002 that established the Department of Homeland Security grants the department permission to build a “National Emergency Technology (NET) Guard” of on-call volunteer specialists to assist in cyber crises.

It’s better late than never, but it is late: Even Estonia has already started building its own volunteer cyber corps. “Since we live in this modern era, it’s not only riding around in the woods with guns,” Estonian President Toomas Ilves told Nextgov in 2011.

The U.S. department’s immediate goal is to bring in some former government computer experts to fortify the weak spots in its security, then the plan is to scout fresh blood at community colleges. The Homeland Security task force that pushed the need for the Cyber Reserve also recommended that the department incorporate two-year training programs into higher education at certain schools. The programs could start as soon as next school year.

The department has had a tough time drawing talented key strokers to its ranks. I mean, if you were a hot shot programmer, would you want to settle for a government salary when you could earn mad money in the private sector? DHS won’t be able to pay Google money, so the department’s new marketing-recruiting pitch is: “Excitement!” says Alan Paller, co-chair of the department task force.

To cultivate the image of “exciting” work, the department is following the example set by the NSA, which has no problem attracting and retaining savvy computer specialists to work on highly-sensitive tasks and help protect the country. It will also look to the FBI’s InfraGard program, an intelligence network that connects industry experts, federal officials and local police.

Source : Motherboard article.

See also : Information Warfare

 

[Natey2]

If they get too many of those ultra-geeks into the same room, a "Windows vs. Linux" or "Android vs. iOS" war might break out. Lol!

 

[yann2]

LOL, that's for sure.

They will need to sort out the Android squad from the iOS loyalists before packing everyone in the same room.

A friend commented in another forum :

Seriously this is an important issue. Our most advanced cell towers are made in China. Critical infrastructure and we have no real control.

...Which is very true. Think about the high speed 'Net links the cell tower equipment is tied in, and some scary things could happen if there's any 'backdoor'code planted in their firmware, just in case its needed for future use.

We depend heavily on Net infrastructure; for finance, product ordering, etc. I could live just fine without a cell phone, but take away online banking and it would be a giant step backwards.

Was watching some BBC documentaries about life in the country farms during the war, and how it changed the whole picture; Britain had been importing a major pat of its food, since no one could compete with the American grain mega farming. All of a sudden, that supply line gets seriously shaky with the U-Boat campaign in the Atlantic.

Imagine if there's open warfare in the networks?