Cyber Corps Program Trains Spies For the Digital Age, In Oklahoma 118
David Hume writes "The Los Angeles Times has a story about the two-year University of Tulsa Cyber Corps Program. About '85% of the 260 graduates since 2003 have gone to the NSA, which students call "the fraternity," or the CIA, which they call "the sorority."' 'Other graduates have taken positions with the FBI, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security.' According to the University of Tulsa website, two programs — the National Science Foundation's Federal Cyber Service: Scholarship for Service and the Department of Defense's (DOD's) Information Assurance Scholarship Program — provide scholarships to Cyber Corps students."
Yeah, but Tulsa (Score:4, Insightful)
/here's hoping no one from OK has mod points
Re:Good ol' USSA (Score:2, Insightful)
The NSA is growing very fast and pointing its efforts inwards.
This will result in two systems for the USA:
A Soviet system- a huge structure unable to deal with protesters, debt, hunger, riots, informants, cyber war, crumbling infrastructure and the massive optical, hardware and software data dumps per day on people of interest around the world.
Or they end up with the MI6 dilemma - a perfect world wide network of great spies- sadly working for other powers as their vetting was rushed, classed based, faith based or family based.
The correct vetting needed per person is not easy. Family, parents, grandparents, school teachers, college, friends, lovers, drinking problems, gambling, net usage, contact with foreign powers, family origins, cult, faith... can all add up to the perfect person having two hats and helping the 'old' country or be open to blackmail, sleeping around or finding faith after a night raid or noting the double crossing a country that was always allied with the USA...
Basically a team has to physically interview up and down the family tree and most people of any meaning a person has had in their life for the better security clearances.
So yes, both the USSR and UK have tried to stuff their clandestine services with graduates with very predictable results - they all started as the "super techies" of their generations.
Re:Good ol' USSA (Score:4, Insightful)
What are you rambling about? Nowadays, most background checks are done from an office at the inquiring agency's headquarters. People who would be superb government agents are ruled out because of an arrest record, while complete losers are sometimes welcomed into the agency, because they have a clean record.
Interviews? A long time ago, when I was a young man, yes. Today, not so much.