[nycbug-talk] (forw) FW: SANS NewsBites Vol. 15 Num. 064 : NSA Plans to Eliminate System Administrators for Improved Security; DHS Deputy Secretary Lute Takes On Global Leadership in Cybersecurity

[George Rosamond]

Jim B.:
> 
> From SANs (which I have shamelessly copied) comes news of a new direction
> for systems administrators - the unemployment line.
> 
> Also what, exactly, is an "automated cloud infrastructure"?
> 
> Thoughts?
> Jim B.
> 
> **************************************************************************
> SANS NewsBites                August 9, 2013             Vol. 15, Num. 063
> **************************************************************************
> TOP OF THE NEWS
>   NSA Plans to Eliminate System Administrators
> (August 9, 2013)
> In an effort to reduce the risk of information leaks, the US National
> Security Agency (NSA) plans to get rid of 90 percent of its contracted
> system administrator positions. NSA Director General Keith Alexander
> said that the agency plans to move to an automated cloud infrastructure.
> Speaking on a panel along with FBI Director Robert Mueller at a security
> conference in New York, Alexander referred to the recent revelations

Well, while this just refers to the NSA's imagined restructuring,
despite the heavy privatization of government function like this, you
are dead right.

20 years ago: "I'm a webmaster"  Today: WTF is a "webmaster"

And in sysadmin land, it's also very true, and I've made a lot of
references to it myself.

One situation I dealt with a year ago... a friend says a growing 300
person firm needs a sysadmin, and could I help.  Of course I'm imagining
some dynamic, scaling situation, when essentially they needed a recent
grad who knew how to cloud services... or could be trained in 30 mins to
do so.

Yes, we have the buzzword of 'devops', and some people think it means
sysadmins have to have heavy coding skills (again), but it's really a
cover for the larger deskilling process IMHO.  One devops = sysadmin + a dev

g