Several Pentagon Contractors Recruiting for Offensive Cyberwarfare Jobs
June 16th, 2012Via: Forbes:
Over the past few months, Hypponen has been periodically visiting the “careers” section of defense contractors’ websites and online job listings, particularly those targeted at candidates with secret clearances, and searching for words like “exploit,” “offensive,” and “vulnerability.” And the positions he’s been seeing show a new recruiting focus–or newly explicit focus–among the Beltway firms that serve the Pentagon: offensive cyberwarfare.
“This exciting and fast-paced Research and Development project will plan, execute, and assess an Offensive Cyberspace Operation (OCO) mission,” reads a posting for a job with the bland title “Cyber Software Engineer” at defense firm Northrop Grumman. Booz Allen Hamilton seeks a “Target Digital Network Analyst” capable of “exploit development for personal computer and mobile device operating systems, including Android, Blackberry, iPhone and iPad.”
Defense contractor giant Raytheon is looking for a “Unix Attack developer.” TeleCommunications Systems wants a “Windows Attack/Exploit Developer.” NSA contractor SAIC seeks a “Red Team Developer.” All three of those companies’ job descriptions include the phrase: “analyzing software for vulnerabilities as well as development of exploit code.”
Hypponen says the job searches he began out of curiosity show a marked uptick in these self-described offensive hacker jobs for U.S. government contractors. “I think this is new,” he says. “The arms race has started, and this proves it. It’s a clear sign of the demand to stockpile cyber weapons and expand the operations underway.”
