Feds suffer from 'serious' IT security talent shortage The United States government faces a serious shortage of skilled cybersecurity specialists, according to a new report, which estimates the country may need an 8-fold increase in the number nationally sponsored graduates with security degrees. The federal government currently runs a scholarship program that turns out about 120 …
I know of a British guy called Gary who's a genuis computer security expert, although he's got a touch of autism, it's rumoured he's been more than a match for NASA and the US Navy. Sounds like the perfect man for the US to hire.
(Come on America, there is no shame in backing down. It would be very noble of you to let this go, shake hands, and give this man a job)
The truth is that there are security professionals as well as software engineers who are US citizens who could do the work.
The real problem is that the work is in specific geographical areas and that the companies hiring don't want to pay higher salaries or relocation benefits.
There was one security professional in Chicago who complained about this fact as he was coming back from a meeting in California.
Of course part of the problem is that with all of this off shoring of work, why would anyone want to study software engineering only to not have a job when they graduate?
The skilled people are there, except that the HR Recruiters are using software programs that only search for candidate that have "industry certifications" that are worthless pieces of paper.
Sorry I know a few too many PMPs that are certified but I wouldn't want them on any of my projects.
I was offered a job in Silicon Valley for what looks to some people like "great money". My wife could make even more with her skillset. But we couldn't afford to live there. Our house is about $114/sq ft ($124/sq m if I've done my math correctly). Can't live in a car for that much in California, unless we move out to Lodi.
Same applies to DC, which is where most of the wonks think we want to work because they do.
I do have a CISSP and 15 years security experience (damn good at it, but no offense taken Ian). But it's even worse than certs, everybody wants buzz wordy things. If I say I'm VISA certified, but not VSP, I'm screwed. If I say BS 1799 but not ISO 17999, I'm screwed.
Oh, and I've had three jobs offshored in five years. So now I'm on my own.
You're right man, too many idiots with their heads in the sand, not enough bulldozers. Sigh, bedtime for me.
Exactly, spending money on training is unacceptable. And the jobs will probably be outsourced to India next year anyways.
Mainstream IT security is too volatile to be an employee-paid or consultant paid career. The products are too varied. And the technology comes and goes.
You don't know what employers or customers have or will have.
And everything you know could become obsolete in 2 years.
Even a superficial knowledge of IT security reveals the root problem is criminals are allowed to organize and operate without inhibition by law enforcement.
Add some effective policing and prosecution for internet crimes, and 90% of security problems would dry up, along with the jobs.
Paris, because her future is far rosier than an IT professionals.
needs to switch its exposed systems to the Canadian/International version of OpenBSD. Surely they could have people trained to do that. The Canadian/International version has more secure encryption standards than are allowed in the US, but then this would be for the Gov, so should be OK. hhhmmm I wonder if that last is still true.
By using OpenBSD they also get the source code to study, improve, use as they want.
blah blah blah rewrite software blah blah blah
If the OS and software they are using now had been worth the money they and most of world would not have these security issues.
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