Posted on Jul 13, 2018
Fish Out of Water: How the Military Is an Impossible Place for Hackers, and What to Do About It
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The U.S. military established Cyber Command almost a decade ago, but it fails to maximize its contributions to national mission. Struggles on all levels — from the political to operational — contribute to Cyber Command’s ineffectiveness. But simmering beneath the surface is a crippling human capital problem: The military is an impossible place for hackers thanks to antiquated career management, forced time away from technical positions, lack of mission, non-technical mid- and senior-level leadership, and staggering pay gaps, among other issues.
Fish Out of Water: How the Military Is an Impossible Place for Hackers, and What to Do About It
Posted from warontherocks.com
Cyber
Hacking
Cybersecurity
CT: Cryptologic Technician
Posted >1 y ago
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Excellent article. One of the things that popped out at me is this:
Cyber Command’s commanding general and National Security Agency director Gen. Paul Nakasone recently remarked that “[o]ur best [coders] are 50 to 100 times better than their peers.”
That is an absolutely spot on observation. It gets into who is good at those types of jobs. What I've found, and I'm old and crusty enough to have done this for a while, is people either have the right mindset to be really good at this type of work or they don't. If they do, they really don't need a lot of formal ongoing training as they take care of that themselves. If they don't, normally no amount of training will get them there.
Just think about the implications of that for a moment given how people get to do the work they do in the military. The entire mindset is, "we'll take you as you are and mold you into what you need to be to do your job." That doesn't work here, as it never really has for some of the more technical jobs in the military. I suspect as the needs of the military become more technical, we are going to have to rethink the idea that we can just train anyone for anything as long as they can take it.
It is also the type of work that needs to be done with few distractions. The military has some challenges there too.
Cyber Command’s commanding general and National Security Agency director Gen. Paul Nakasone recently remarked that “[o]ur best [coders] are 50 to 100 times better than their peers.”
That is an absolutely spot on observation. It gets into who is good at those types of jobs. What I've found, and I'm old and crusty enough to have done this for a while, is people either have the right mindset to be really good at this type of work or they don't. If they do, they really don't need a lot of formal ongoing training as they take care of that themselves. If they don't, normally no amount of training will get them there.
Just think about the implications of that for a moment given how people get to do the work they do in the military. The entire mindset is, "we'll take you as you are and mold you into what you need to be to do your job." That doesn't work here, as it never really has for some of the more technical jobs in the military. I suspect as the needs of the military become more technical, we are going to have to rethink the idea that we can just train anyone for anything as long as they can take it.
It is also the type of work that needs to be done with few distractions. The military has some challenges there too.
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Just from a small sample I've seen, the military mostly relies on contractors. I've seen some who demonstrate for a proposal they have the capabilities, but when you really look behind the curtain they aren't really doing much in this area. I think it's a really vulnerable place for the military.
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