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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday November 19 2015, @08:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-watson dept.

American federal investigators are having a hard time hiring computer-savvy staff, according to a memo from the Inspector General for the US Department of Justice.

"Even as it works to expand the ranks of its cybersecurity team, the department continues to face challenges recruiting and retaining highly qualified candidates to do this work," the memo [PDF] states.

Last year the FBI got the authorization and budget to hire 134 computer scientists for online investigations. We're told the agency could only find 82 people interested in working for Uncle Sam. As a result, five of the FBI's regional 56 Cyber Task Force teams don't have a computer specialist on hand.

Why are they having so much trouble?


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  • (Score: 2) by spxero on Thursday November 19 2015, @11:05PM

    by spxero (3061) on Thursday November 19 2015, @11:05PM (#265547)

    I agree with your point about being spied on, but investigation does not mean surveillance. An employee at a company I worked for passed away under unexplainable circumstances, and the county investigator had trouble even accessing the data on the devices without knowing the password. We wanted to help the investigators out, but because they couldn't guarantee that we wouldn't be subpoenaed in any trial just for helping them access the information, they were left to their own to try and recover any information. We wanted to be helpful, but being drawn into a long legal battle ourselves if we found something or were named on the case just wasn't worth it. I can't imagine this is the only case where a lack of technical knowledge impeded the investigation, and there will probably be many more for it before that knowledge gap is filled.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 19 2015, @11:47PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday November 19 2015, @11:47PM (#265566) Homepage Journal

    Good. I'd far rather guilty people go free than have my privacy invaded by authoritarians, well-meaning or not.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.