Contractor Seeks 'Cyber Warriors' to Help Defend U.S.

Contractor Seeks 'Cyber Warriors' to Help Defend U.S.

www.foxnews.com

Leading defense contractor Raytheon is looking for a few good men and women — a couple of hundred of them, in fact — to patrol the front lines of America's cybersecurity.

For the Raytheon jobs, all you need are very strong computer skills — a college degree in computer science, math or engineering is preferred, but not necessary — strong ethical standards, and, for most positions, the ability to pass government security clearances, which entails U.S. citizenship.

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We've long been hearing how the United States lags in cybersecurity, so this story was interesting in how it is currently "agressively" recruiting candidates to help defend the United States.

Our Raytheon cyber warriors play offense and defense, and know how the adversary thinks and can adopt their perspective," says the Web page, which lists positions ranging from "network and security engineers" to "data modeling engineers" to "media sanitation specialists."
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Sorry hackers, your skills apparently aren't wanted with this company.

And while some security companies hire ex-hackers, Hawkins said such formerly shady characters need not apply in this case.

"We certainly love ex-hackers' skills, but you have to get ethical people," he said. "There are very extensive background investigations, and you don't usually find criminals making it through that process."

Even former teenage hackers who haven't been convicted of any crime but are suspected of a few would not be considered.

"That would be a very negative thing," Hawkins says. "We would rather take engineers with basic skills and train them from scratch."
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So...any takers?

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reply to post by MOFreemason


They won't hire ex hackers? From what I know self taught hackers who are passionate about this stuff are MUCH more skilled than some kid who learned computer security in college.

Many companies choose to hire hackers because they are VERY passionate about what they do. I don't know why the gov wouldn't do the same.

I'd rather have people who think like a hacker and not a cop doing this work rather than anyone else.

[edit on 25-7-2009 by jeasahtheseer]

They don't want skilled people, they want drones. Business as usual for government contractors.

On a side note, anybody who says "hacker I hacked it hacketty hack hack" probably doesn't know much about computer security.