Take Janet Napolitano, U.S. secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who has said the country can't find the right people for network defense. The real problem is a misunderstanding of computer geeks, their personalities, habits and their backgrounds, said Schwartau today during his talk at the Hacker Halted information security conference here.
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Computer geeks are discriminated against under hiring rules and legal niceties that often categorize them as undesirables. "We do not fit the mold. We at the outer limits of normal," Schwartau said.
According to Schwartau, there's a gauntlet of hiring obstacles today that actually work to discriminate against computer geeks who have the expertise to do the job of protecting government networks. Demands for college degrees and IT certifications and the ability to get IT security clearances should not be a priority in hiring, said Schwartau. "Forget education," he said, adding, "We need to re-design clearances -- they're a Cold War relic designed for nuclear secrets and 1950s crypto." The era of 9-to-5 is also over, he added.