Kin Cheung/AP file photo

The Snowden Effect

Public aversion to domestic spying doesn’t seem to be hurting government’s ability to recruit cyber staff.

Revelations last year that the National Security Agency is collecting Americans’ telephone metadata soured some people’s opinions about the U.S. intelligence community, but they apparently haven’t affected the views of many computer security professionals.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that leaks by Edward Snowden, the former systems administrator and contractor with the National Security Agency, have not hindered efforts to recruit or retain cyber staff at the three-letter agencies. Instead, the disclosures actually might have helped intelligence agencies attract computer aficionados by spotlighting the agencies’ bleeding edge technology.

“We have had no indication that cyber pros have any reticence about working for the government,” says Mark Aiello, president of Massachusetts-based Cyber 360 Solutions, a staffing firm. “It is probably the opposite, and mostly for the opportunity to work with some advanced tools or techniques. The Big Brother aspect is appealing if you are the watcher, not the watched.”

Justice Department Chief Information Security Officer Melinda Rogers says the attention to agencies’ cyber activities may pique the interest of potential recruits. “And that’s our responsibility as hiring managers to make sure that they understand the importance of the mission.”

Multiple East Coast cyber recruiters say none of their prospective hires has mentioned Snowden as a factor in their career considerations. Nor have cyber headhunters, who place departing government pros in industry positions, seen any increase in federal personnel heading for the exits.

“I normally hear regularly from people who want to leave. I haven’t seen an uptick at all,” says Kathy Lavinder, founder of Maryland-based Security and Investigative Placement Consultants. “I think there’s just always a steady stream of people who want to leave after X amount of years. And I think for the NSA, there are people who go there to get the experience to have that on their resume.”

Deborah Page, a Virginia-based executive search consultant with the McCormick Group who specializes in information security job searches, says, “We aren’t seeing any challenges at the moment” with recruiting talent in the wake of Snowden, “or at least I’m not.” 

A Blow to Morale

The Snowden leaks might not have hurt recruiting or led to an exodus of talent, but the publicity they generated certainly had an impact, says Christina Ayiotis, a computer science faculty member at the George Washington University. “Morale was severely affected at NSA,” she says. “While there may be disagreement regarding whether actions were legal or not, the vast majority of employees were doing the work they always do, believing it was protecting the country. The negative impact has been in their productivity levels, I’m sure.”

While the intelligence community ranks among the best places to work in government in surveys by the Partnership for Public Service, employee satisfaction and commitment dipped from 71 percent in 2012 to 67 percent in 2013.

Nonetheless, job seekers appear undeterred. 

CIA spokesman Christopher White says more than 80,000 people applied for jobs with the agency in 2013, an increase over the previous year although he would not disclose how many people applied in 2012. “What I can tell you is that recent leaks have not impacted our recruiting efforts in any significant way,” he says.

Within the office of the Director of National Intelligence, hiring managers have seen “no notable impact to our recruitment efforts or to the number of individuals submitting applications in response to the Snowden media leaks,” DNI spokeswoman Kasey Butler says. 

Officials at the FBI and the Homeland Security Department declined to comment. 

At the Pentagon, the opportunity to join a “unique cyberspace mission,” which involves hacking adversaries, protecting military systems and cyber spying, continues to attract candidates, Defense spokeswoman Lt. Col. Valerie Henderson says. “Recent media attention to the work cyber professionals perform provides an opportunity to correct distortions and present the facts on the critical value of this work,” she adds. 

As for the elephant in the room, NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers said recently at a Reuters cybersecurity summit that the agency had seen some impact on recruiting and retention, in certain areas: “In general I would say not to the point where it’s really impacted our ability to recruit the right people,” Rogers said. 

Regarding retention, he pays particular attention to younger staff with three to five years training, “who have a skill set that is readily transferable to the outside world,” he said. “I have not seen significant loss that I would attribute to the current environment. Now, does that mean I’m going to sit here and tell you we haven’t seen any loss? 

No . . . I think it just goes to the workforce believes in what they’re doing.”

NEXT STORY: Mapping Better Decisions At EPA

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.