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We often discuss the merit (or necessity) of having a formal degree in technology. This story is another installment in that debate:
The Department of the Interior's computer systems played a major role in the breach of systems belonging to the Office of Personnel Management, and DOI officials were called before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about the over 3,000 vulnerabilities in agency systems discovered in a penetration test run by Interior's Inspector General office. But there was one unexpected revelation during the hearing: a key Interior technology official who had access to sensitive systems for over five years had lied about his education, submitting falsified college transcripts produced by an online service.
The official, Faisal Ahmed, was assistant director of the Interior's Office of Law Enforcement and Security from 2007 to 2013, heading its Technology division. He claimed to have a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and a master's degree in technology management from the University of Central Florida—but he never attended either of those schools. He resigned from his position at Interior when the fraudulent claim was exposed by a representative of the University of Central Florida's alumni association, who discovered he had never attended the school after Ahmed accepted and then suddenly deleted a connection with her on LinkedIn.
TFA emphasizes the falsification he did of his credentials, but there seems to be heavy insinuation that lack of degree = lack of ability.
Official Submission
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @09:10AM
"To me, if he was dishonest about this, what else is he lying about?" -Random comments
Even the most honest person would likely lie or steal if they were hungry, had no money, and had no other means. When you set up a system that makes it nearly impossible to get a job without having some insanely expensive piece of paper (Because let's face it: If the actual education was what mattered, liars would very likely be weeded out quite quickly due to lack of skill unless they themselves were skilled.), of course people are going to lie about having such a thing; you've given them little choice. This reminds me of what is sometimes said about illegal immigrants: "If they're willing to break the law to get into the country, then that must mean they hate all laws and clearly have no problems with murder." Different situations, different ethical considerations.