NSA Recruiting College Students

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HardOCP News

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If you think you have what it takes, the National Security Agency is looking for you. Well, they aren't "looking" for you...at least I don't think they are. :eek:

The National Security Agency (NSA) is pleased to announce the establishment of a new National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations Program. The program is in support of the President's National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE): Building a Digital Nation and furthers the goal to broaden the pool of skilled workers capable of supporting a cyber-secure nation.
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W

Worldhammer

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I asked if I could send em a resume, but they said not necessary. We already know whats in there. :D
 
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Parmenides

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Can't forget clearance checks for... uh... data they already have in the snap of a finger..
 
viscountalpha

viscountalpha

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The private sector will always have the better choice in candidates. Cash talks and shit walks as they say.
 
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Parmenides

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viscountalpha said:
The private sector will always have the better choice in candidates. Cash talks and shit walks as they say.
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Information can be more valuable... especially if you are privy to info the public doesn't know about why certain stock would be good to buy right about now. ;)
 
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Novulux

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I applied for some scholarship program for high school seniors that would require me to work for them during the summers. Got flown out for interview, psych eval, but failed lie detector apparently. Definitely a weird experience as a 17 year old.
 
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panhead

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It is said every person has a price, that they are willing surrender their freedoms won by the deaths of others.
 
Semantics

Semantics

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lilbabycat said:
At least 3 times on near identical, but not quite, forms. Which are promptly lost.
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3 doesn't sound right needs to be an even number because first you got to fill out the electronic forum then fill out the paper form because even though they have the electronic form they need a paper forum for some parts of their department and they won't accept a copy because the sections are slightly different in ordering.
 
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5icko

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A sound strategy. Recruit those kids while they're still young and stupid.
 
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player-x

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I doubt that they will get a lot of bachelors to apply, or dose it also comes with a vow of abstinence?

As this is how i see there social life going from the day they work there:

NSA worker: Hey have i not seen you before?
Civilian: Is that your original pickup line?
NSA worker: Na ii was thinking i go with a classic, not working?. ;)
Civilian: Na not really. :(
NSA worker: Did not think so, but i just saw you humming that song, your a fan?
Civilian: Yes, you know it ?
NSA worker: Yeah seen it 3 times life, the first time was even before he had his first hit.
Civilian: Really .... cool. :D

A couple of dances, drinks and 4 hours, and some other things later.
tounge.gif


NSA worker: Hey they are closing soon, wane have a ride home.
Civilian: Sure that would be nice.
NSA worker: Ok lets go then.
Civilian: I had a real nice time, but btw what do you do for a living.
NSA worker: Oooo .... Uhhhh .... Ehhhh ..... I work for the NSA.
Civilian: Ooo ....... that sounds ..... Ehhh .... interesting
NSA worker: Yeah its real fun and important work.
Civilian: ................
NSA worker: Hey i have that song you liked wane hear it?
Civilian: ... sure ....
NSA worker: I really love tthe lirics of tthis song, he shows his inner soul in this song, dont you think?
Civilian: .... Yes ... its real interesting ....
NSA worker: Ok here we are.
Civilian: Ok thanks for the ride ..... I will get home from here by my self.
NSA worker: Don't you wane me to come up with you?
Civilian: Na my mom is coming real early in the morning to help me out, so i now really have to go to sleep or i am wrecked tomorrow.
NSA worker: Let exchange numbers, and we can meet again to go out.
Civilian: Sure give me your number but I will call you ........................ :eek:

26.jpg


Yeah Right ...........
 
X

xX326Xx

Limp Gawd
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Heck they took Snowden with false credentials. I'll take a fat paycheck/benefits from the government.
 
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Ducman69

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I heard about this, I believe they are calling it the Obama Jugend. Worth it for the brown uniforms alone.
 
R

Romale23

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Ducman69 said:
I heard about this, I believe they are calling it the Obama Jugend. Worth it for the brown uniforms alone.
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lol appreciate the imagery just and an FYI the NSA actually has partnered schools everything from k-12 to major universities complete with coop, internship programs and direct hiring for years now. Think it dates back to the 70's or something. CIA does the same with universities
 
NeghVar

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Shortly after Snowden released his initial info, the NSA had a similar college seminar.
University of Wisconsin One question that threw it into chaos was a student asking "is being a good liar a qualification for getting an NSA job?"
 
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Deleted member 93354

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President Business: Remember this Tuesday is Free NSA Tacos. NSA Tocas Tuesday. Who wants a Taco?
 
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lcpiper

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Heck they took Snowden with false credentials. I'll take a fat paycheck/benefits from the government.
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Umm, no they didn't. Snowden was never an NSA Employee. He was a contractor and there is a difference.
 
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TwistedAegis

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Ducman69 said:
I heard about this, I believe they are calling it the Obama Jugend. Worth it for the brown uniforms alone.
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For the love of god, hope this is sarcastic. :rolleyes: Three letter agencies have always recruited; cryptography wunderkind have always been specifically targeted by the government, ever since the 40s.
 
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/usr/sbin

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lcpiper said:
Umm, no they didn't. Snowden was never an NSA Employee. He was a contractor and there is a difference.
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Um... it's up to the NSA to make sure their contractors meet certain standards. This includes things like... oh... I don't know.... providing properly qualified staff! :rolleyes:

Let's say I run a plumbing outfit as a businessman, contracting out work to subs. If the sub fucks up, my client goes after me, not the sub contractor as I am the one the client has the contract with. Sure, I could turn around and go after the sub-contractor, but that's another issue entirely.

Same thing applies to the NSA. Yes, the NSA can go after contractors in their own suits, however, ultimately the NSA is responsible for the behavior of contractors acting on their behalf.
 
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lcpiper

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Um... it's up to the NSA to make sure their contractors meet certain standards.
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No, not like you think. I'll explain it though so you have a better understanding.

The NSA Let's a contract and some contractor outfit is awarded this contract. It's personnel on this contract are required to have clearances dependent on each position filled, this position needs a secret, that position a TS/SCI with full scope poly, etc.

The company hires some dude that has a TS/SCI without the Full Scope Poly but they believe it is worth it to go ahead and hire him and let the Poly part be completed and then put him on the job once complete.

They hire the guy, the Poly is scheduled for 2 months from now so they send the guy to a couple of boot camps and he sits at corporate or somewhere else off site, or they put him into a temp spot that requires a secret for a couple months while they wait for his Poly to be done.

The Security Investigation and Poly is the responsibility of the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Investigative Services(FIS). Many of the actual investigations are contracted to contractor companies like USIS, the guys that did Snowden's, the Navy yard shooter.s, and Chelsea Manning's investigations.

This investigative service is not under the DoD or the NSA so the NSA is not responsible for the effectiveness, completeness, accuracy, or validity of the investigations. The NSA'a responsibility in these regards begin and end with verifying that the clearance exists in the national database for cleared personnel. The hiring contractor company has the same access to the same database and they just look the guy up by his social and if he is in there and his dates are good, not out of date then he is OK.

When it comes to his education history and required certifications like Security+ (CE), a Computing Environment Cert, or other's like CSSP, NCDA, or a higher Degree, it's up to the Contracting Company to validate his credentials on hire and in some cases there may be a time limit for how long he can be on the job before a requirement is met. In other words, he might have 90 days from the day he starts on the task to get his Security+ up to date and current.

Most of these credentials and certifications are listed and tracked in a database and the hiring Agency does check these periodical to ensure that these requirements are met.

This info on Snowden is from a Wiki page and it has been changed a few times over the last several months, the dates and details of his work history have been "evolving" for some reason but if you read this carefully you will see some problems.
In February 2012,[88] Snowden began work at an NSA facility on Yokota Air Base, a U.S. military base outside Tokyo, as an NSA contractor for Dell, which manages computer systems for many corporations and multiple government agencies.[28] Snowden remained on the Dell payroll until early 2013.[89] He was one of around 1,000 NSA "sysadmins" allowed to look at many parts of the system without leaving an electronic trace and able to argue for the use of thumb drives in a secure environment.[72] In May 2014, Vanity Fair reported that Snowden "instructed top officials and military officers on how to defend their networks from Chinese hackers."[4] U.S. officials and other sources familiar with the investigation said Snowden began downloading documents describing the government's electronic spying programs while working for Dell in April 2012.[90] Investigators estimated that of the 50,000 to 200,000 documents Snowden gave to Greenwald and Poitras, most were copied by Snowden while working at Dell.[4] In those contractor positions, Snowden held top secret Sensitive Compartmented Information clearances.[91] USIS completed a background check on Snowden in 2011.[92] On January 23, 2014, the US Department of Justice filed fraud charges against USIS for routinely failing to properly investigate individuals.[93][94] The company is accused of falsifying 665,000 background checks on government employees. The civil case, United States of America ex rel. Blake Percival v. U.S. Investigations Services, is ongoing in U.S. District Court.[95]

Snowden described his life as "very comfortable," earning a salary of $122,000-$200,000 depending on bonuses.[96][82] At the time of his departure from the United States in May 2013, he had been employed for 15 months inside the NSA's Hawaii regional operations center, the last three of which were with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.
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In short, here is a brief timeline from this passage.

USIS completed a background check on Snowden in 2011.
February 2012,Snowden began work at an NSA facility on Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, Japan.
Snowden remained on the Dell payroll until early 2013.
Investigators estimated that most of the 50,000 to 200,000 documents Snowden gave to Greenwald and Poitras, were copied by Snowden while working at Dell
According to local real estate agents, they moved out of their home,(Hawaii), on May 1, 2013
At the time of his departure from the United States in May 2013, he had been employed for 15 months inside the NSA's Hawaii regional operations center, the last three of which were with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

So here is the problem. He worked in Hawaii for Dell from February 2012 until "early 2013".
But...
By May 2013,(Still pretty early in 2013), he had been employed for 15 months inside the NSA's Hawaii regional operations center, the last three of which were with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

So backtrack from May 2013 three months and you have about Jan 2013 as his start with BAH, that's cool, and the short time accounts for the reason the NSA had not caught up with problems with his education and certification credentials. Still, this passage says he had been working in Hawaii the previous 12 months ostensibly for Dell because he didn't leave the Dell payroll until "early 2013". But going back twelve months for Dell in Hawaii means he got to Hawaii and started work there in like Jan 2012. But he started work in Feb 2012 in Japan at Yakota AFB. And still I remember a previous report that he had worked for Dell in Japan for like four years. And the Military is saying he stole most of his stuff in 2012 while he worked in Japan. So how does he spend a year in Hawaii and a year in Japan at the same time.

And the NSA is not responsible for checking the contractor's credentials in the way you think they are.
 
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lcpiper

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By Canna;
...the NSA is responsible for the behavior of contractors acting on their behalf.
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And this is part of the misconception people have with what contractors actually are. You have the idea that a contractor is just some slob hired to do the same thing the NSA employees do and for the most part this is a false concept.

There are two types of contracts, Service Contracts, and Personal Service Contracts. There is a big difference between the two. A Personal Service Contract is an agreement where the Contractor acts essentially as a personal servant and the requirements and scope of the contract can be very broad to almost non existent ie.. you get paid to do what I tell you to do. These contracts are very rare and are supposed to be avoided whenever possible. There must be a very compelling reason to use this type of contract vehicle over simply hiring another government employee or using a Service Contract.

Then there is the normal, 95% of the time, Service Contract where the scope of the work and every job position and the requirements for those positions are all laid out and defined. The Contracting Officer's Representatives (COR) is responsible for ensuring the requirements of the contract is being met. Maybe the contract is to build a website like health.gov or to maintain a data center. Whatever, the contract workers are responsible to their employers, follow their own company's supervisors and are supposed to avoid any appearance that they work for the Government, because they don't work for the government. They work for their company who is being paid to provide a service or services, build a road, a building, keep the A/C running, manage a network, cook in a Dining Facility, whatever that service might be. They are contractors, not government employees, the janitor is usually contracted, he works for his company, he doesn't work for the government although he may clean a government building. His company is responsible for his work and any shit he causes at work, the government is not. The government is responsible to the American People to ensure that his company get's the job done per the contract, but they are not responsible for the individual Contractor Employee, his company, (the Contractor), is.
 
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