US Military to Hire 4,000 More Cyber-Soldiers

The Pentagon`s Cyber Command intends to hire 4,000 more technology specialists to defend the US against imminent cyber-attacks.

A US defense official told the Washington Post that “the national mission teams would focus their efforts overseas and that any actions they took would be directed outside U.S. networks ” unless the teams were asked to provide assistance to another agency with domestic authority, such as the FBI. There`s no intent to have the military crawl inside industry or private networks and provide that type of security.”

At the moment, the Register notes that some 900 civilian and military personnel handle cyber warfare matters as part of Pentagon` s Cyber Command which cooperates with the National Security Agency under Gen. Keith Alexander.

With this decision, the US joins South Korea, Germany, Australia and the UK in boosting online-warfare departments with training programs or custom-made cyber weapons.

Finding highly skilled people, however, has proven not so easy, especially with the private sector paying more than governments for the specialists. And apparently governments are also extremely private with respect to their know-how and don`t share enough information with future candidates for these jobs so as to get them interested.