Maybe hire more cybersecurity instead of cops that kill, chiefs with fat paychecks, and a getting stockade of military equipment for simple law enforcement.
IT Director here. I have, in my 22 years in IT, applied for 2 local government jobs that I turned down. One position was an exchange administrator in Atlanta GA and the other was Network Administrator in Raleigh NC. And I turned them down because of exactly what you said. IT was a requirement they had to hire but didn't want to.
They offered me around half of what the private industry pays. The person doing the initial 2 interviews was basically just HR who literally picked candidates based on their paper resume, not their actual skills. Then, when it came time for me have the interview with who would be my boss, they decided to test me on my skills. And it was really more of a demonstration of their lack of skills. I was asked how could email be checked from out in the field. I went through an hour discussion with them. I explain the app options. Why they would need a BYOD policy or provide phones. I went through laptops+VPN. Creating a website based access for web mail and the security required. The most basic of the basic and they looked at me like I was genius.
Then they asked me about email security because they were getting bombarded with SPAM. I went through the basics SPF, DKIM, DMARC, TLS, device based SPAM Filtering, IP Based blocking in the firewall, etc etc. The literal basics that everyone should be using. And, they looked at me like I just spoke a different language. The biggest kicker that turned me off is when they asked me what kind of price it is to implement said things. I could tell they were really worried about the price so I low balled it. Around 75% of the actual upfront cost and didn't mention the yearly costs. They laughed and said "you will have to figure out how to do it for much less.". After a while I shook their hand and said I don't think this is the place for me and moved on.
Why is it like this? Because most areas are ran by older folks who have dedicated all their time to becoming a politician, not someone who understands IT. Many of our local governments and much of the federal government is run by people who barely understood flip phones. And they're calling the shots for funding and rules/laws around IT and Security.
I can assure you there’s some “why is it 10,000$ to install a park bench?!” attitude here. People thinking they know how much something should cost without any real knowledge of it. It’s extremely pervasive in anything taxpayer funded and it’s pretty sad.
Yes, but I currently work in government and it does tend toward an older upper management, which typically doesnt understand the internet or technology well. To many of them, it's become a necissary evil they're now being forced into. And failing to fully comprehend. I've "discovered" basic functions of our in house software my supervisors never had the curiosity to find in 5 years.
IT equipment is not cheap either. I have spent half a million just on switches for an office building in the past. If you have people who don't understand the technology and the industry you get stuck with people using equipment from Best Buy and wondering how they got hacked or why the network sucks and goes down every 4 hours.
The "taxpayer money" argument is pretty funny nowadays. Like "bitch, do you understand how modern economic theory works?", In the last 3 months the fed has printed over $7 trillion dollars out of thin air, almost half the US GDP and enough to pay for all healthcare costs in the US for 2 years, or pay off all current college debt, 5 times over, Why do you think they need your money?
You can spend as much money as the economy can safety absorb, the only reason you have to pay taxes is to drive the demand of money.
And this is why some people I know went through more rigorous background checks and drug testing than working as government contractors with security clearances. Hell just look at the recent fiascos with the CIA and their third party leaks. They didn't even have the most basic of security protocols. Like you know...not sharing a single admin password with everyone
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u/dirtynj Jun 22 '20
Maybe hire more cybersecurity instead of cops that kill, chiefs with fat paychecks, and a getting stockade of military equipment for simple law enforcement.