US Cyber Command floats $460m contract to outsource most of itself

Re: And the contracts are awarded to....

A good answer! Just because there isn't a Bush on the Throne or a Cheney behind the curtains, doesn't mean Haliburton and all it of the subsidiaries aren't still at the US Gov's teet.... maybe more than ever now???

Re: And the contracts are awarded to....

Booz Allen Hamilton? Lockheed Martin?

Hell, the list is somewhat longish.

Re: not surprising

The argument has always been the military/government does not have the ability to do this, which is something they not only did in the 50s but pioneered. It might have more to do with the fact that a contractor is not held to the same standards and constitutional requirements as a government entity. Invasion of privacy? Oh it's not US, it's our contractors, we don't ask how they get this stuff bro.

Re: not surprising

Wasn't Snowden a contractor? And look how well that worked out for us!

The single advantage of having the military provide cyber command and control is the fact that the military has complete culpability for any screw-ups.

Re: not surprising

Actually most of the real security work in government is done by contractors, though not for those reasons. At my agency there are Feds who set policy, manage the contractors, and insist all the appropriate boxes have their checkmarks, but damned if half of them actually know what they're doing (one of them told me to delete the ntuser*.* files in a profile because they'd just repopulate [windows 7]). And they are impossible to get rid of given the civil service rules. Contractors on the other hand can be fired at will. And I don't mean at will like in the private sector where HR actually needs to document before firing. I mean, if the contracting officer didn't like the way you looked at him/her this morning, the door will not be hitting your ass as you exit.

Re: Contracting in Crash and Burn Cultures

This isn't going to end well, is it?

What's bugging me is that just recently they said they were staffing up with "top people" who are in the military already and to finish their TO, recruitment and training was well underway to bring the Command up to full strength. What changed? Lobbyists? A mass resignation of the troops? Profit? ... Mark 85

What changed, Mark 85, is US Cyber Command realising their problems are all based in Wild Wacky Western business practices and fickle fat fiat banking systems falling flat and failing catastrophically to deliver goods to market and practical dreams to virtual reality. Remedying that requires ...... well, just for starters, at least AAA AIMissionaries ...... Ab Fab Fabless Mega Novel MetaDataBase Sourcing Pioneers.

Then things end up simply just as planned and provided for, with all of the complicated processing taken care of by others quite anonymous and both remotely, practically virtually and relatively autonomously.

Capiche, Amigos? That is how IT and things are done and get done with/in CyberIntelAIgent Command and Concentric Control of Computers and Communications ....... at the Virtual Machine Interface with Global Operating Devices in Unique Universal Source Banking Supply Systems.... SMARTR AI Programs which can easily entertain an Alternate Train and Strains of Hellish Pogroms too, but that isn't going to end well either, is it, so best not to deserve and server it, methinks ?

Re: Contracting?

Odd, as I'm a contractor for a corporation providing information security for government agencies, with one branch providing security for some US DoD operations.

One requirement for any of those positions is US citizenship, followed by holding a security clearance.

Odd that you'd speak in such volumes, yet have absolutely no idea what you are speaking about.

Just as El Reg did when it went on about companies "vetting employees", nope, the company will frequently do so, but also the US government also does so. That is especially true when one is speaking of security clearances.

Those are investigated by OPM, then provided to China for backup purposes.

Oh wait, that wasn't a backup, because we can't restore from it.

It's for Real Hearts and Virtual Mind Games, NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT Play

Whenever it is just so, AC ……

“its just a smokescreen, to get inside knowledge of a lot of corporations working on sensitive projects.”

…… do smarter cooperative corporations and internetworking entities working on sensitive projects have the world at their feet and an embarrassment of international riches to choose from, and in who to favour and flavour and savour with their novel intellectual property.

And it is a live opportunity for all those systems in need of such quite unexpected expertise to make their move, and initiate engagement lest treasures be shared elsewhere, foreign and alien, too.

Re: its just a smokescreen

Go look at the US military pay scale, then tell us all how you can even hold onto one single experienced system administrator, when the civilian market pays an order of magnitude more.

WMD, but not as they be portrayed and presently sold and told in MAD Circles and Crazy Space Places?

They don't have a clue how to actually build a "secure" network - if one even exists! … JCitizen

A secure network, JCitizen, whenever one exists, is one in which all secrets are open source and readily available in texts and/or language which all and a choice few can understand at a higher level of consciousness with a greater base intelligence. Encryption is not needed there ….. unless one is into sub prime supply and evil provision, although that would suggest the necessary understanding at higher levels of consciousness with greater base intelligences be surely missing in proposed action, reaction and proaction and that be the fundamental inherent systemic weakness for relentless ruthless search and destroy attack.