who protects the government's critical information infrastructure?

March 26, 2009 10:34 AM

What are some examples of government jobs in the field of security and information assurance?

I'm interested in all possible answers but would particularly appreciate answers that describe jobs which do not require hardcore programming skills.

posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel to Work & Money (3 answers total)

DoD is very into IA. Anything that transmits, receives, uses the internet needs a certain amount of IA, which generally includes things like encryption, anti-jamming, and anti-spoofing.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:37 AM on March 26, 2009

The NSA does a ton of this, both securing their own information and getting yours.

This need not require programming skills, but some familiarity with either electrical engineering or higher math will probably be useful.
posted by valkyryn at 10:44 AM on March 26, 2009

DoD, particularly the Navy, is obsessed with IA. Here is one listing. However, there are other IA roles. For example, there are contractors who is responsible for verifying that the various encrypted combat system links used to network ships in a battlegroup together actually comply with Navy IA requirements. I once met a guy whose job was to make sure that the piece parts of the DDG 51 class's combat system meet IA requirements in such a way so as to mesh properly when it's all put together. The field is only going to expand as the networked force becomes more of a reality.

Those two jobs are not programming heavy - they're more policy/process type roles. Those guys just needed enough to understand the nuts and bolts of IA and verify whether the Navy's requirements were being met.
posted by pandanom at 7:22 PM on March 27, 2009