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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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8

Pentagon Builds Legion of 'Hacker Soldiers'

US lags behind in cyberwarfare: experts

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(Newser) – Military recruiters may still prize the strapping jock, but military contractors are wooing the scrawny computer geek to join the ranks of young "hacker soldiers" enlisted to defend the US in cyberwarfare, the New York Times reports. Most of the biggest companies, like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, have “cyber contracts” with the military, and the Pentagon now has thousands protecting the US against threats and developing offensives of their own.

The US, experts say, is behind in its cybersecurity efforts. “Everybody’s attacking everybody,” says one engineer, 30, for contractor Raytheon. Right now, government spending on cyberwarfare stands at about $10 billion—but it’s likely to soar, say those in the industry, with Pentagon enthusiasm reaching “religious intensity.” “I always approach it like a game, and it’s been fun,” said a 22-year-old Raytheon worker.

Northrop Grumman is one of several military contractors with cyber contracts, the Times notes.
Northrop Grumman is one of several military contractors with cyber contracts, the Times notes.   (AP Photo/Wong Maye)
"It takes a nonconformist to excel at what we do," says a Raytheon worker, who's also a surfer.   (Shutterstock)
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on securing the nation's cyber infrastructure, Friday, May 29, 2009, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on securing the nation's cyber infrastructure, Friday, May 29, 2009, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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2-bits
May 31, 09 11:21 AM CDT
The Pentagon does not understand what it is getting into. Reply
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TerrifiedCitizen
May 31, 09 12:10 PM CDT
Both BushChen and company, as well as the Big 'O' want to get on top of any perceived threats from both foreign and domestic cyber activity... as well as knowing what Americans are saying about their own government. The previous administration raised a lot of ire with their illegal and Bush-League stumbling around; but if 'O' has one thing on his side, it's his finesse... so there is a slow but progressive effort to convince us that new federal intrusions into domestic cyber-communications are really for our own good, and that even though the feds are gearing up for sophisticated domestic as well as foreign web monitoring, it is being done primarily for that awful "bogyman" whom ever it may be and not really for Joe the plumber. Constitutional privacy protections were previously overcome by using many of the same foreign allies that are used for things like foreign detention and torture centers, to wiretap Americans by American government via "Echelon" and other ultra expensive and difficult to control foreign 'assisted' peeping programs. The problem with that is that is it's necessary to trade services with those same allies for such assistance, it's expensive, and there is a growing perceived threat that collected and stored communications of its own citizens may end up in the hands of corrupt allied governments or real terrorists, which could have dangerous if not downright embarrassing connotations here at home if it got out. So for a long time now, government has been attempting to bring the "peep show" home to American soil... of course very clumsily by BushChen, and now a bit more palatable by the mighty 'O'. Having a strong domestic control over this somewhat last bastion of private and personal form of somewhat unfenced porthole to the rest of the globe (at least in the eyes of some civilians) falls in line with the growing desire by selected nations through the U.N. for a transition to "One Government", "One People" Global cooperation. This program, which now hangs, albeit a bit uncomfortably on the shoulders of some members of our latest administration, has been called a lot of different names by a lot of different American watchdog organizations; some dismissed as "conspiracy groups" in order to discredit their otherwise factual findings, and dismiss the potential for public alarm until more groundwork is in place to make a transition an already foregone and inevitable conclusion. Government intrusion into every aspect of your life and activities is merely a hop, skip and jump away... which bothers lovers of freedom and the constitution that built the New World, but very few of the sheep-like group cultivated by the federal government for several generations, who want to believe everything the main-stream media has been feeding them, and want to hope that everything done for them in the name of government is really for their own good. This now majority group of Americans are the same group who have relied on paid, professional... Reply
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Addyp
May 31, 09 4:01 PM CDT
tl;dnr also I think you dropped your tinfoil hat.
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Mr.C
May 31, 09 6:59 PM CDT
BE LACONIC.
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shonangreg
May 31, 09 11:26 PM CDT
Wow. I read it, TC. My head is numb now. .............. What you say seems plausible, but there are so many links and outlandish guesses in there that are difficult to confirm (and apparently unconfirmed). I think that the most benevolent interpretation one could reasonably assert in the face of a too-complicated-to-check hypothesis would be to simply say that it is plausible. But some episodes of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and solipsism itself are also plausible. ............................ You need more than plausibility. It is the difference between hypothesis and theory.
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