Industry News

U.S. government head-hunters will scout the 10,000-plus attendants of this year's Defcon hacker convention in Las Vegas to recruit for organizations like the National Security Agency, Reuters reports.

Richard George, technical director of the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, told the news source his agency needs "cyber warriors" to secure the nation's technological infrastructure and conduct computer espionage. Most of the NSA's planned 3,000 hires in the next year will be computer security specialists, according to the source.

Despite the expected high attendance this week at Defcon, George said the NSA is struggling to fill its cyber warrior positions. Impatient with a six-month government clearance process that includes a lie-detector test and background check, some candidates take jobs in the private sector. Hacker culture also values operating on the margins as opposed to working for massive organizations like the NSA, which according to Reuters employs more than 30,000 people.

These challenges notwithstanding, George said the NSA appeals to many potential cyber warriors because the agency has access to cutting-edge technology and the job involves difficult and important problem solving.

Underscoring the need for government cyber security specialists, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn recently acknowledged 24,000 files were stolen from U.S. Department of Defense computers in March 2011.