Hackers, Gamers and Tech Workers: The UK Needs You For a New Cyber Army 104
girlmad writes "The UK government is looking to recruit IT experts for a cyber reserves army, which will help it defend against the threat of cyber warfare. 'This is an exciting opportunity for internet experts in industry to put their skills to good use for the nation, protecting our vital computer systems and capabilities,' said the Ministry of Defence. The reserve unit will cover a range of military cyber tactics, including a strike capability to augment the UK's military prowess."
"Gamers" (Score:4, Insightful)
Since gamers today are basically anyone who has the utterly amazing skill of being able to get bored long enough to reach for a CD, how about we leave them off the listed of request people, thanks.
Re:"Gamers" (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably planning ahead, operating drones & killer robots will basically be a video game.
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Think of the grinders! Some people are able to play the same game for years, almost 24/7. Don't confuse casual gamers with the devoted.
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As someone whose mother has clocked more time in bejeweled than I have in all my JRPGs combined, which is which?
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As someone whose mother has clocked more time in bejeweled than I have in all my JRPGs combined, which is which?
The one with a job is a casual gamer.
The one without a job is "devoted".
Re:"Gamers" (Score:4, Funny)
In my day, we would spend months adjusting DOS drivers so we could catch a glimpse of a game in wonderful CGA color. Why, the games would ship with bandages and a coupon for a free transfusion at the local hospital from all the blood lost from changing soundcard IRQ jumpers. /offmylawn
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Just as you need the right tech touch for sockpuppets on slashdot to contain thinking on the latest NSA crypto news.
Gamer's Guild? (Score:1)
Re:Gamer's Guild? (Score:5, Funny)
If they don't call them the Cybermen, I'm not joining.
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As long as I get to wave a plunger around and yell EX-TERM-IN-ATE as part of my job duties, I suppose I could.
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Sting Operation (Score:5, Insightful)
Riiiiiighttttt... they're asking all "potential troublemakers" to come on in and get on their big, happy, new list. Just wait, some day the long knives will come out.
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Perhaps you could expand a bit on your thinking there? Because of a procurement scandal, Britain has no enemies?
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Meanwhile, we already know they don't follow orders and on average, are not physically able enough to join the actual military.
I don't think they thought this one through in any context except getting a list of these people and their information.
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The kinds of honey trap and other compromising online 'friendships' would be a historically fitting result long term.
For that kind of direct operation you need the flow of slang, creativity and seduction.
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Exactly. Do not trust any organisation affiliated with the UK state!
The UK cannot be trusted at all.
USA? (Score:1)
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They'll meet you halfway. Just go to the middle of the Atlantic, and tread water until they show up.
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Pre or post re-normalization given average shift?
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LOL ... (Score:3)
Wow, I don't envy anybody the job of sifting through that mountain of applicants who are all self professed l337 hax0rs.
As Grouch Marx said, I donâ(TM)t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member -- and this group is likely going to self-select for some strange people.
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Like any job opportunity, you weed out a great % just by the resume. Once you find a few viable candidates the rest of the resumes get filed and reopened if need be. This situation isn't unique to this job opportunity. I used to supervise in a call centre and a simple $12/hr job would get hundreds sometime thousands of applications.
Re:LOL ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing to do with gamers` (Score:1)
The original announcement had no mention of gamers. Looks like it's just The Inquirer making crap up.
the recruitment page itself (Score:2)
The Cyber Reserve offers a challenge that you can get nowhere else. [www.gov.uk]
ROTFLOL
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Scottish.
If you were a Scot, you'd refer to yourself as a Scot, a group of Scots as Scots, and describe a group of Scots as Scottish.
Scotch is a drink, made with peat based on how drink barrels used to be sealed.
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Scotch is a drink
...and a tape.
Hackers? (Score:2)
If you're good enough to work in this so called "cyber security", bare in mind the crimes of NSA and GCHQ against the entire planet, you'd be better off being on the good guys side, the side of everyday people.
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What I meant was write better encryption for the masses. Change the email system so emails are not all sent like postcards. Nothing illegal in that.
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The UK has always needed to invite in the best and most creative, people with math, language skills or a who have had a deep immersion in other countries cultures.
Looking back the UK has the cold war history of been able to project, out think and shape many other larger nations military and political actions.
Apart from total Soviet penetration, Argentina
Dear UK (Score:4, Funny)
Dear UK,
Chinese hackers in your system? Some troublemaker from the inner city poking around in a highly classified file network? Just dont like what some guy from the internet is doing on your home page?
For the low low price of 1 billion dollars, I will give you the solution to your problems! DISCLAMER: By reading below you are utilizing my advancted technique and agree to make payment in full to myself. Thank you.
Step 1:
Unplug the machine.
Problem solved. I will be expecting my payment shortly. Thank you.
American perspective (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, I'm in, as long as you have a job waiting for me in the private sector too. This country is a sinking ship. We aren't willing to pay top dollar for talent, instead going for saturating the market with immigrant visas to drive labor prices down. We've got a crazy patent and copyright system that all but eliminates opportunity for startups. If signing up for some 'cyber reserve army' is what's needed to have a job that pays the bills, good health care, and a home in a low-crime area, I'm not gonna waste any time... I'll pack my bags and be there inside a month.
Right now, our own 'cyber army' seems more intent on considering its own citizens the enemy; At least from what I've seen in the UK they have similar levels of surveillance but are far more subdued in their... zeal... for punishing people caught in their dragnets. It's not much, but it's something. Taken as a whole, I think it would be a better quality of life to be a British citizen than a US one. Plus, they still have a middle class.
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That's exactly how the system works, make people dependent of "a job that pays the bills", even if that job is against what we agree are human rights. And while you are just a small gear in this machine, happily turning while the machine hums idly, don't complain when someone takes control of it and uses it as what it was really designed for. 1984 ftw.
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That's exactly how the system works, make people dependent of "a job that pays the bills", even if that job is against what we agree are human rights. And while you are just a small gear in this machine, happily turning while the machine hums idly, don't complain when someone takes control of it and uses it as what it was really designed for. 1984 ftw.
Pardon me for taking the practical approach of, upon seeing the incredible wealth inequity of this country, far worse than countries in Africa dominated by warlords, even, deciding that it's a lost cause and opting to leave and suggest others do the same. I mean, dying or starving to death for the noble cause of staying where I was born is nice and all, but my activism has some practical limits; I don't wanna die to be part of somebody else's political statement.
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[...] dying or starving to death for the noble cause [...]
I'm pretty sure that 90%* or more of people here are far from that risk. People like you and me have the option to chose where we're going to work, the only matter is how much you're willing to be paid. I rather have a lower income and be sure I'm a positive element in society than the other way around. That's not "somebody else's political statement", that's my political statement, because I want to live in a better society. If your world-view is "it's a lost cause, let me make it worse", than no, no pardo
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If your world-view is "it's a lost cause, let me make it worse", than no, no pardon given. And please reflect more about it, because you are part of the problem.
Nice strawman. Took you longer than average though -- nearly a full paragraph, to build one. Work on that. Now, your poor use of cognitive errors aside, I'm fixing to leave. If I manage to, then I'm not part of the problem, you are. Because you're what's left. I'm out of the equation. So turn that finger right back around.
In other news, it may be shocking for you, but not everyone wants to turn everything into a political cause. Some of us pick and choose our battles -- we learn to tolerate what's left. It'
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Nice strawman[1]. [...] Now, your poor use of cognitive errors aside[2]
[1] there's no strawman here :)
[2] quite ironic
Because you're what's left.
I've never been in the US, and I have no plans to go there.
In other news, it may be shocking for you, but not everyone wants to turn everything into a political cause.
It may be shocking to you, but ignoring an issue is a political action, regardless of you being aware or not.
if we don't focus our energy we accomplish nothing. [...] You can't be a part of every cause, you have to pick a few and focus on those, otherwise you won't accomplish much of anything, anywhere.
Yep, I agree on that.
Now, if you want to go down with the ship, you go man. I'll be on the life boat floating off thattaway, noting that your noble sacrifice gave me a place to put my feet up.
That's where your analogy breaks, you're not only floating away, when you say "If signing up for some 'cyber reserve army' is what's needed" you are actually contributing to sink the ship... not the one you left, but the one you're about to board.
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Meaningful contribution:
- giving support for health care systems, etc.
Sinking the ship:
- giving support for installing spyware on citizens' computers.
If you can't see how the later is prone to be abused then you're really naive. But your signature shows that's not the case, and I can only laugh at the hypocrisy.
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If you can't see how the later is prone to be abused then you're really naive. But your signature shows that's not the case, and I can only laugh at the hypocrisy.
If you can't see how people who are starving really don't give a flying fuck through a rolling doughnut why job security matters more than dying in place over some idealized worldview, then you're really dumb. But your username d(u)mbasso shows that's not the case, so I can only laugh at your pathetically small penis.
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If you can't see how people who are starving [...]
I'll not repeat myself. [slashdot.org]
But your username d(u)mbasso shows that's not the case,
Nice ad hominem! :) I guess that's what's left when you don't have actual arguments...
so I can only laugh at your pathetically small penis.
... no, you can always go further down! :)
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upon seeing the incredible wealth inequity of this country
But taking a job in "security", as they define it, won't help with that. When the security apparatus gets used to secure the elite against the masses, what then? Why do you think they're so hot for more security? It's the very inequality they caused that scares them. The whole thing is a wrong turn for any nation. The political hacks they dig up to run these agencies have a lamentable tendency to be really dumb about certain things. They are too easily swayed by copyright extremists, prone to thinking
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If signing up for some 'cyber reserve army' is what's needed to have a job that pays the bills, good health care, and a home in a low-crime area, I'm not gonna waste any time.
I'm sorry, you must be mistaken, the jobs are in Britain.
Re:American perspective (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sorry, you must be mistaken, the jobs are in Britain.
Unemployment rate, March 2013
Britain: 7.7%
United States: 7.6%
National health care
Britain: Available to all citizens. Emergency care for all, regardless of legal status. No personal cost, paid for by taxes.
United States: Some people meeting income or age requirements may qualify, for a fee. In an overhaul of the system soon to be deployed, there will be fewer requirements, but there will still be a fee.
Intentional homicide rate, 2012 ... Yeah. I'm definately mistaken here.
Britain: 1.2 per capita
United States: 4.7 per capita
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You haven't read the latest news reports:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9819096/Two-million-quit-Britain-in-talent-drain.html [telegraph.co.uk]
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/1000-knife-crime-victims-in-london-each-month-shocking-new-figures-show-8681511.html [standard.co.uk]
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jun/12/workers-deepest-cuts-real-wages-ifs [theguardian.com]
http://rt.com/op-edge/osborne-scheme-property-market-crash-434/ [rt.com]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2438168/Half-maternity-wards-turn-away-women-labour-Report-says-lives-r [dailymail.co.uk]
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The UK is going the same way as the USA. Everyone is fighting and clawing each other to get that "home in the catchment area of the good school" unless they can afford a private school. Which by the way is only affordable to company directors and senior government employees. Anyone who can't achieve that goal has no option but emigration.
Just a room in the edgier parts of London rents for £200/week.
Don't exaggerate, it casts doubt on the rest of your argument. A room in a crap bit of London is more like £100/week, maybe only £70 for a grotty place. Private school isn't as expensive as you suggest either -- I went to one (my dad taught there, so we had a big discount), and there were plenty of children whose families weren't especially rich. They just chose not to have things like satellite TV, fancy foreign holidays, etc, in order to afford the fees.
Having said that, there are deep prob
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You haven't read the latest news reports:
Just a room in the edgier parts of London rents for £200/week.
Despite the best offers of recruitment agencies in the past, I have never worked in London. I am currently as far south as I can tolerate - not far from Birmingham. London is somewhere you visit on holiday or travel through. It is the part of the UK that makes visitors from the USA feel most at home about crime levels, price gouging, drugs, unfriendliness and heavy policing.
Get a clue about the UK. London is in the remote south away from most of the country.
Want to get the hackers on your side? (Score:2)
Want to get the hackers on your side? Create a legal environment where whitehats can work safely. Put bounties on your critical systems. Suddenly all the unruly script kiddies will work for you, testing your security.
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Legal, clean, smart, good pay long term and great advancement options.
That was hoped to out do anything the Soviet Union could offer poor or under appreciated staff. Blackmail attempts could be reported.
In theory the public image held together over many years, many whistleblowers, authors and pol
Why would we want to help surpress freedom? (Score:2)
I'm just asking why we would want to help suppress freedom in the UK?
And by we, I mean the half of my friends who hold UK citizenship.
The devil in the details. (Score:5, Interesting)
From the source [www.gov.uk], and I'll add some commentary.
We are seeking to recruit from three areas: regular personnel leaving the service; current and former reservists; and individuals with no previous military service
In other words, they take anyone.
As well as employing reserves under current terms and conditions of service, the Cyber Reserve will be running a pilot scheme to evaluate innovative and inclusive approaches to recruiting, training, and employment.
Emphasis mine, but I think that's enough to question what you are getting into.
* possess verifiable exceptional cyber skills (*)
* be aged 18 or over
* be a UK or Commonwealth Citizen
* have lived in the UK for the last 5 years
* be able to commit to the minimum annual training
* be willing to undergo and pass a security clearance process
* use spare time and weekends in order to support defence’s cyber security mission
Nothing too odd here, but it appears that you are going to working for free. Also, "cyber skills" really means squat. I'm sure they will give you a test...
The Cyber Reserve offers a challenge that you can get nowhere else.
Except for the US, the current UK version of NSA, the current version of the German NSA, the Italian version of the NSA, etc.. etc.. blah blah and yes, even Russia has one of those. Not unique, and only challenging to your morals in most cases.
It would be cool if nobody in the UK signed up, but I know that the UK plays on patriotism and "terror" as much as the USA does. So the race is full speed for who is the biggest dickhead country, the US or UK. Good luck over there across the pond.
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I know that the UK plays on patriotism and "terror" as much as the USA does.
Not quite. (And that's a British "not quite", i.e. a polite not at all.) You have to be very, very careful when being patriotic in Britain. There's a risk that you'll be seen as uneducated at best, nationalist / fascist at worst.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7608125/England-least-patriotic-country.html [telegraph.co.uk]
From the first paragraph -- I can't tell you when St George's Day is, except it's April. The story is he killed a dragon, but I don't know why that links him to England. My idea of patriotism is
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An IP trap/tracking and reshaping of the message back to busy work or to get close to admins/coders.
Spare time and weekends sounds like dedicated sockpuppet work to inject a long term 'story' on the benefits of war or minimising any bad press once 'reality' sets in.
Expect to see many more careful crafted comments by longterm sockpuppet 'names' vs a
"Reserves" (Score:4, Insightful)
So what are you going to do, drop by a few days each year for reserve training and if you're ever called into action you'll be issued your standard script kiddie pack? Hand a bunch of guys semi-automatic rifles and they'll be a decent fighting force but I don't see "cyberwarriors" functioning the same way...
Restaffing (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds like the UK is trying to restaff GHCQ with anyone who will take the job and young enough to be assimil^H^H^H trained correctly.
Security Clearance = Criminal Activity (Score:1)
What's today is being considered "legal" by the current regime, tomorrow might be serious criminal offense.
Governments are Crowd Funded. Open Source Them. (Score:2)
Well, I'm not sure about the effectiveness of this motive. What I think we need is an open source replacement for such "cyber army". As a US resident, if our government decided to involve citizens I'd sign up and help teach folks how to it secure their systems for free. Hell, I've voluneered at community centers already to do just that.
With a bit of state funding we could set up "crackathons" where government and businesses and citizens cooperated to test the security of our online infrastructures. C
Citizenship (Score:2)
Paria's NOW (Score:1)
Blacklist the agency, and anyone assoiciated with it.
Name names, publish, leak, blow whistles.
They Should Do Like the Americans (Score:3)
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ie the UK has moved beyond the "charge them with 50 gazillion stupid "crimes" idea.
The US is still trying to understand the total benefits that the more charming and advanced UK method offers.
Meanwhile in Russia... (Score:2)
Russia has already planned for "cyber army" of its own. Except, the only task for poor dumb 18-year olds is astoturfing. You know, making posts about glorious Putin and throwing shit at his numerous enemies (practically anyone, who is not a brain-dead redneck or a criminal) at forums, blogs and news sites. It all started in China, and now more and more political "elites" try to enlist their propaganda soldiers in order to save and prolong their wealth, power and heritage.
So, it's UK time now.
Come! (Score:1)
Help defend a country run by a government of crooks and fascists! ...No thanks.
captcha: unmoved (sounds about right)
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If the research results in something tangible, i think it would be used.