From: <anonymous>
On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, mea culpa wrote:
> WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDG) -- Federal officials are looking at ways to
> prevent an "electronic Pearl Harbor" -- a sneak cyberattack. But in a
> situation somewhat parallel to the plight of the undermanned and
> unprepared military in 1941, the federal government is facing a
> tremendous shortage of people needed to fight any future cyberwar.
Small wonder. They take some of their brightest and most ambitious minds
and they leave them dying on the vine. Politics, not ability, drives the
internal government mechanizations. All too often, totally incompetent
individuals are given charge over technologies of which they have little
or no understanding. Hubris becomes the modus operandi, and the truly
clued take the hint and bail on the situation for the commercial sector.
> Over the next seven years, the government will have to replace more than
> 32,000 information technology workers -- almost half of the 71,000 IT
> workers employed by federal agencies, according to a recent study by the
> federal Chief Information Officers Council. Much of the turnover is the
> result of rise in the number of employees eligible for retirement.
And when the government isn't replacing the IT workers, they're
outsourcing them to penny-ante contract firms where they have to fight
tooth and nail for additional training (or get no training at all), get
little or no support, and recieve largely inadequate compensation compared
to their commercial sector counterparts.
> Of most concern is the need for IT employees with information security
> skills, according to a recent federal report urging the creation of a
> massive intrusion-detection system to protect federal and critical
> private systems, such as energy, telecommunications and transportation,
> against cyberattack.
I truly wish the government would get over the idea that bigger == better.
It doesn't.
I. R. O'nonymous
ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM
Received on Tue Aug 31 17:03:15 1999