US Cyber Warriors

Defense and intelligence contractor Raytheon is moving into the lucrative realm of cyber warfare, and wants to hire hundreds of “cyber warriors” to “play offense and defense,” according to an advertisement on the company’s web site.

“President Obama recently announced that cyber security is one of our country’s most urgent national security priorities,” reads the ad. “Raytheon is answering that call by hiring more cyber warriors this year to help fight the digital cyber war.”

The ad says the company has 250 positions available in its Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS) division. The jobs are for, among others, reverse engineers, kernel developers, and vulnerability and intrusion detection engineers. Raytheon also has positions available for something called “media sanitation specialists.”

The latter probably refers to workers skilled at erasing data from hard drives and other storage, rather than to workers capable of spinning the company’s message to journalists. But Raytheon did not respond to a call seeking clarification.

Several defense contractors, including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) have recently been buying up smaller computer security firms in an effort to obtain billions of federal dollars coming into play as the government begins to ramp up its efforts to protect government, military and private critical infrastructure networks from attack.

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Positions include:

• Information Operations/Information Assurance
• Software engineers/developers – JAVA/J2EE/, JAVA/XML, C++
• FPGA expertise
• Software security engineers
• Test engineers
• Software testers
• Systems administrators - Linux, Solaris, Unix, Red Hat, VMware (Certifications are preferred)
• Systems engineers - CNO, CNA, CNE, NOC, Requirements management
• Network and security engineers - CISSP
• Cyber and information security
• Program management
• Capture management
• Business development
• Vulnerability assessment engineers
• Intrusion detection engineers
• Information systems security engineers
• Certification and accreditation engineers
• Project managers - information systems
• Oracle/Sybase database administrators
• Web developers (HTML, Java)
• Help desk
• Data modeling engineers
• Technical writers
• Reverse engineers
• Kernel developers
• Secure network engineers
• System integrators engineers
• Configuration management - ClearCase/ClearQuest
• Deployment engineers
• Media sanitation specialists
• Former military personnel
• Subcontracts administrator
• Site security specialist - IT focused

A variety of security clearance levels are required for these positions, up to a TS/SCI clearance with a fullscope polygraph.

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Some analysts estimate that it will cost as much as $40 billion to implement the cybersecurity plan.

The Trusted Internet Connections program is the most established piece of the initiative. The Office of Management and Budget developed the program in November 2007 with the goal of decreasing the number of connections from federal agencies to external computer networks to 100 or fewer. Agencies made a 39 percent reduction in the first four months of 2008, from more than 4,300 connections in January to 2,758 in May, according to OMB.

The idea is that the fewer connections agencies have, the easier it will be to monitor them and detect security incidents. TIC requires agencies to use the Einstein system to monitor the connections. The automated system, developed by DHS, collects computer security information and then sends it to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

"Einstein is not optional – it's mandatory for anyone [managing] an access point," said Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for e-government and information technology. "If someone is not [properly] managing a connection, DHS has the authority to shut it down." In those cases, she said, network activities will automatically switch over to another connection, so that operations won't be affected.

Chabinsky offered fewer specifics about the other 11 components, which are aimed at making improvements in the following areas:

• Intrusion detection

• Intrusion prevention

• Research and development

• Situational awareness, specifically through the National Cyber Security Center, which will coordinate information from all agencies to help secure cyber networks and systems and foster collaboration

• Cyber counter intelligence

• Classified network security

• Cyber education and training

• Implementation of information security technologies

• Deterrence strategies

• Global supply chain security

• Public/private collaboration

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Just doesn't feel like they are planning offensive operations, black hats, etc.

Anybody writing "Rules of Engagement"?

G

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