The Geeks on the Front Lines

It's just a bunch of bureaucrats in a room. They've got their Standard Operating Procedures, and react accordingly. They're just cogs, and all the real decisions come from the higher ups. All the hardware in that room is procured and maintained through IT contractors and there is no software on those machines that wasn't listed when they wrote those ~5 year long contracts.

tl;dr -- the article is lightweight technically but touches on important and potentially flawed aspects of the government's relation to IT security industry.

Formatting aside, the content is relatively important in a non-technical way. It is detailing the manner in which the USG is experiencing some brain drain due to both its policies and image. I wish the author had contextualized the Miami conference a bit better (and the Fedora comment is hardly forgivable, I hear Windows 8 is used in China too). There really is a need for some US cyber policy but I fear that in its current incarnation that the government is not well suited to bring on the kind of infosec talent that it needs. Yes there may have been excesses (I think I saw one or two Snowden articles on HN) but there are real attacks going on against both USG networks and those of prominent US companies. With all the people on here who are US based entrepreneurs (aspiring or succeeding) I think we want some level of government protection against foreign government attacks, in the same manner as brick and mortar businesses don't want tanks rolling through their walls.

I just hope that the US as a country consisting of both public and private sector can reach a point where petty (rather outdated) regs don't prevent willing top talent from helping the government while simultaneously ensuring that US tech companies don't fall into being simple fronts for USG collection.

Tattoos, hackers, "cyber warfare"...it's all the sensational stuff that I've grown to expect in the news. While yes, offensive cyber operations/effects stuff is the new military hotness, what about the real geeks on the front lines? Where are the profiles of radio operators or network/system administrators who are actually physically present on the front lines? Where are the profiles of 22 year old Marines who are experts in RF propagation, field expedient antennas, and satellite link budgeting in austere environments while engaging in combat operations? What about their counterparts who operate and defend enterprise scale, secure data network enclaves supporting 10,000+ users who demand real-time information to command and control forces in battle?

It's not as sexy, but those are the real geeks on the front lines. They work in grueling environments, far away from their families and deserve to be recognized in their fields.

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/91656/radio-operator-vital-pers...

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/79421/data-marines-wire-battali...