NSA to Cut System Administrators by 90 Percent

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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The Edward Snowden disclosure ripple effect has come back home to the NSA. Citing the need to limit data access, the NSA will begin to eliminate 90% of its system administrators to be replaced by automation. The NSA says it had planned all along to automate the system, but recent events have accelerated the process.

Using technology to automate much of the work now done by employees and contractors would make the NSA's networks "more defensible and more secure," as well as faster, he said at the conference, in which he did not mention Snowden by name.
 
Translation: less people that know about our crimes means less people to possibly expose them.
 
So basically the same companies will continue to receive seemingly unlimited funds, but they will enlist fewer people to share the money with. At least the datacenters aren't moving offshore.

How about improving the screening of people allowed to work directly with "sensitive" information? Bah, WTF do I know....
 
just like John Robb has been saying

then they plug the ethernet cable from this machine into the autonomous drone dispatch machine and viola, automated murder.
 
Does this mean drones will now be deployed by an automated system?

If your house burns down or your dog dies, you won't be able to blame anybody.

Genius.
 
Would you willingly program software for NSA to support this autonomy? If yes, does that mean you support monitoring US citizens at all times?
 
Would you willingly program software for NSA to support this autonomy? If yes, does that mean you support monitoring US citizens at all times?

I personally wouldn't but could see others in the event they can't find work elsewhere and have a family to food with the justification, "If I don't do it, they will just pay/find someone else who will."
 
I guess a lot of people will hafta find a new job now. :( I blame the public for screaming a lot about things they don't really quite understand for driving societal protection further underground. The public is so unreasonably mean and they don't deserve to have Wal-Mart to shop at anymore.
 
Yeah, fewer admins but better, only hard core patriots. Does anybody believe anything the NSA says?
 
"more defensible and more secure,"

Translation, "Less capable of oversight, less humans to leak info".
 
Translation: less people that know about our crimes means less people to possibly expose them.

More likely they were 90% overstaffed.

Also a background check will in no way predict someone will decide to do what snowden did.
 
Would you like to play a game?

WOPR.png
 
The NSA is like a guy stalking his girlfriend. Obsessively spying on someone they claim to care for. Refusing to cooperate with law enforcement and restraining orders. Rationalizing their actions to others. Constantly seeking more control.
 
Would you willingly program software for NSA to support this autonomy? If yes, does that mean you support monitoring US citizens at all times?

Think about all those people who worked for the Nazis. Same answer.
 
I was going to say something clever and derogatory about the NSA, but I'm afraid they might read it. I wouldn't want to end up labeled a "terrorist" and have to make new friends at Guantanamo.
 
How about improving the screening of people allowed to work directly with "sensitive" information? Bah, WTF do I know....

Because the screening process for TS-Compartment screens for treasonous acts by the very agency you are working for?

Foreign and DOMESTIC is what I signed up for to protect my nations people against.
 
Here's the thing. The sysadmins are generally going to have the ability to see the good and the bad goings on.

So cutting them by 90% will allow what?

More of the low level things and problems to develop and percolate up, thereby making it harder for them to contain the shit.

Typical government move. Fuck fuck fuck its burning, everyone jump in so we can stop the burning!
 
if you knew there was a 90% chance of you losing your job in the next 6 months -- what would you do?

I don't know the in's and out's of how government employment works, but if it's anything like our do nothing congress, you could sit around doing nothing and still get paid till they pull the plug on the project.

I'd be willing to be a lot more office equipment will go missing now, as when you know the ship is sinking, you start taking everything that isn't bolted down.
 
if you knew there was a 90% chance of you losing your job in the next 6 months -- what would you do?

I don't know the in's and out's of how government employment works, but if it's anything like our do nothing congress, you could sit around doing nothing and still get paid till they pull the plug on the project.

I'd be willing to be a lot more office equipment will go missing now, as when you know the ship is sinking, you start taking everything that isn't bolted down.

Catch being, odds are that most of these sys admins are NOT "government employees". They're contractors from 3rd party companies.
 
The Edward Snowden disclosure ripple effect has come back home to the NSA. Citing the need to limit data access, the NSA will begin to eliminate 90% of its system administrators to be replaced by automation. The NSA says it had planned all along to automate the system, but recent events have accelerated the process.

Edward Snowden is an IT guy, so he may be reading this forum. If you were Edward Snowden sitting in Russia wouldn’t you want to know what’s coming down in good old USA?

So, Ed if you’re reading this, congratulations, you did it mang! With 90% cuts, it looks like you would have lost your job anyway.
 
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