The Boom (Or Bubble) In Federal Cybersecurity 72
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that the increasing number and intensity of cyberattacks has attracted the attention of the Obama administration and Congress, which have begun steering dollars to the problem. Much of that new spending, estimated at $6 to $7 billion annually just in unclassified work, is focused on the Washington region, as the federal government consolidates many of its cybersecurity-focused agencies in the area. 'I think it is a real growth opportunity in coming years,' says David Z. Bodenheimer, a partner at law firm Crowell & Moring in Washington, who leads the firm's homeland security practice and specializes in government contracts. 'The market is still rather fragmented and in flux, but is developing with a speed that it is attracting both the major defense and homeland security contractors who are establishing independent business units to pursue these opportunities, and it is also a real opportunity for the smaller players who have niche products.' One reason the field is attracting so many companies is that the barriers to entry are low — at least, relative to other defense industries. But as start-ups and others rush to stake claims, some wonder if a bubble of sorts is beginning to inflate and recall that many venture firms in the early 2000s chased similar prospects. 'A lot of the early people made significant money,' says Roger Novak, founder of Novak Biddle Venture Partners. 'But there were [also] a lot of "me too" companies.'"
Re:government security vs government management (Score:3, Interesting)
Industry has the same problems. Try to change out IE 6.0 because of security issues in any large organization with investment in its sclerotic infrastructure and you will be met with, "Yes, well, security is your problem, now fix the problem and let us continue using IE 6.0".
Government IT "professionals" come from industry IT "professionals", government managerial "professionals" come from industry "professionals". PHBness seems to come with the territory.
Or I should say, PHBness comes from Business School Product. They are clueless, pointless, pitiless and their sole goal in life is make money and retire early. There is no love of science, technology, math or education in them. They understand little about technical issues and they resent you because you do. Not only that, you can make their lives difficult by bringing up issues that will screw up their reports. You, as an educated IT professional, must be sandboxed or worse, eliminated.
Re:lawyerspeak for dummies (Score:2, Interesting)
The real trick is getting the contract renewal. For most contractors the first is usually their only. The really good contractors or the really corrupt ones (is there really a difference) not only get the renewals, they get them without bidding as is the prerogative of the government.
Re:Bubbles are not as nasty in labor-intensive sec (Score:2, Interesting)
I have been in the DoD world for over 7 years now, all of those with a pretty good clearance. When the batch of people I started with were first getting our clearances, the first one to be finalized (adjudicated, as they say) was the guy who admitted to being a drug dealer in the past. Outside of treason like activities, or being a documented member of some anti-America movement there is nothing that is a clear cut NO for a clearance.
I can not say that the other types of clearance are the same (DoE, for example, has a complete different system). This is just what I know about the classic "Confidential Secret Top Secret" DoD style things.