FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
Cyber U. Editor Lindy Kyzer: “A trained and certified force of cybersecurity experts is what is needed to meet these growing threats. Since cybercrime extends to everything from data theft at the highest level of government, safekeeping of healthcare information, spying, and bank fraud to keeping your information secure when you use your credit card, It’s no wonder that the demand for qualified cybersecurity experts is so strong.”
The big switch. Contributor Chandler Harris: “There are numerous signs that may pop up suggesting you need to make a career change. You may simply not like your job. Or, more subtly, you are chronically worn out, exhausted and depleted; your skills, responsibilities, and tasks don’t seem to fit you anymore; your salary doesn’t compensate for a sense of boredom and emptiness in your job; or you feel that your talents would be better suited elsewhere.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
The Rif: Morocco’s terrorist haven. Foreign Policy’s Leela Jacinto reports, “At the heart of terrorist strikes across the world over the past 15 years lies the Rif. A mountainous region in northern Morocco, stretching from the teeming cities of Tangier and Tetouan in the west to the Algerian border in the east, the Rif is an impoverished area rich in marijuana plants, hashish peddlers, smugglers, touts, and resistance heroes that has rebelled against colonial administrators, postcolonial kings, and any authority imposed from above.”
Fixing the Pentagon. Vice News’ Ryan Faith reports, “US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is racing against the clock to push some pretty far-reaching reforms in the Department of Defense. On the one hand, fundamental structural changes in the world’s most expensive military are important, and ripples from these changes will be felt for years and decades to come. On the other hand, this stuff is boring as hell.”
Next in Iraq. Washington Post’s Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel and Phil Stewart report, “As U.S.-led offensives drive back Islamic State in Iraq, concern is growing among U.S. and U.N. officials that efforts to stabilize liberated areas are lagging, creating conditions that could help the militants endure as an underground network. One major worry: not enough money is being committed to rebuild the devastated provincial capital of Ramadi and other towns, let alone Islamic State-held Mosul, the ultimate target in Iraq of the U.S.-led campaign.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
Edward Lin. Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe reports, “Lin faces charges of espionage, attempted espionage and patronizing a prostitute in a rare spying case involving an active-duty member of the U.S. military. It’s a steep fall for a lieutenant commander who has served on some of the Navy’s most advanced maritime surveillance aircraft. An espionage conviction can carry the death penalty . . . .”
Drone convention. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “The future of drone design is an area with huge importance for companies and for the military. At the recent Unmanned Systems 2015 show in Atlanta, Georgia, that future was on display.”
Attacking the grid. The Washington Free Beacon’s Bill Gertz reports, “Three months after a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report downplayed the threat of a cyber attack against the U.S. electrical grid, DHS and the FBI began a nationwide program warning of the dangers faced by U.S. utilities from damaging cyber attacks like the recent hacking against Ukraine’s power grid.”
