Geek Shortage a National Security Concern

Posted 01/15/2010 at 2:45pm | by Bart Salisbury

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Being geek may not be cool, but it has become important enough to a national security concern. In particular, the upcoming shortage of American geeks has the Defense Department concerned that a ‘geek-gap’ will emerge that will pose a distinct national security risk for the U.S. Bottom line: pocket protectors are vital for the front lines in a cyber-conflict.

This might seem counter-intuitive, given more and more of us are immersed in technology. But the Pentagon wants real, honest-to-goodness, bona fide geeks, not geek-wannabes.  Were talking here people with computer science degrees, who are capable of working the cutting edge and beyond.

According to DARPA, the Defense Departments research cabal, the “ability to compete in the increasingly internationalized stage will be hindered without college graduates with the ability to understand and innovate cutting edge technologies in the decades to come...Finding the right people with increasingly specialized talent is becoming more difficult and will continue to add risk to a wide range of DoD [Department of Defense] systems that include software development.”

The Defense Department is now on the hunt for a ‘few good geeks’ to supplement the machismo of the regular services. DARPA has started programs, targeted a middle and high schools students, to convince them there is a future in being geek.

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