Governmental Occupations?

[Nirex]

I know we don't do politics or be any occupations that require dishonesty (lying lawyers). But how far in the government can we work?

 

Trying to get a job again since my last one. But I don't want to do IT anymore, it's boring, not a challenge, and I can barely make a living on it.. My major (before being expelled) was Cyber Security. And before being a witness my goal was always to join the NSA and work for Tailored Access Operations (their elite hacking team) since hacking is what I'm good at. But now...

 

What type of hacking jobs can a witness in InfoSec get? Like There's penetration testing where companies hire you to hack their company for them and tell you their exploits so they can patch them before bad hackers find them. But even Pentesting has it's requirements to a degree of lying since social engineering is half of the job....

 

Most hackers end up working for the government. But how far can you go before it's politics? My husband keeps telling me my old goal was politics even though that wasn't the reason I wanted to work for them in the past.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Nirex

[Qapla]

I knew a sister that used to work crushing cement.

 

She worked for DOT here in Florida. She took the core samples they sent her and crushed them to see how much pressure it took before they gave way. They needed to meet or exceed their specs.

 

It could be said she was destroying things for the Gov't  - but, making the core samples break was the whole idea of the job. How can the amount of abuse a given stretch of road can take be determined without testing cores from the road. To get the results, she had to crush the samples.

 

Did that make her job wrong? After all, she worked for the Gov't and she destroyed the samples.

 

If you are hired to "hack" - how is that "lying" any more than that sister was a vandal for destroying the samples?

 

I don't understand how being hired by the Gov't to hack would be political .... any more than that sister's job was political

[Nirex]

A

1 hour ago, Qapla said:

 

If you are hired to "hack" - how is that "lying" any more than that sister was a vandal for destroying the samples?

 

I don't understand how being hired by the Gov't to hack would be political .... any more than that sister's job was political

From what I know by a friend that worked as a contractor. Working for the NSA, CIA, or the other gov outfits in hacking or intelligence usually means either hacking foreign intelligence, developing software to hack foreign intelligence, or hacking possible terrorists. So I think that'd fall under warfare and politics? I just don't know if there's a lower division that wouldn't be that.

 

As for lying. I don't know if it's ALL pentesting. But a lot of pentesting involves social engineering which is people hacking, the art of deception.

An example one guy told at a cybersecurity conference I went to. His job wanted him to hack the company they ran, mostly test the employees.

 

So ... what he did.. He called up security and told them he'd been hired as new tech support and needed to install a patch on their servers. The guy worked with him and installed the patch. The patch was a virus that escalated his privileges to take over the network. Then the guy told the security guard that he had to come in to test the network. It was a weekend and everyone left. BUT they left the bank vault open. The guy walked in, took a picture of the cash, and reported his findings to the company on what they needed to fix.

Now yes he was hired by the company to lie to the employees to see who's slacking and who needs more training. So he was given permission to lie... But it's still a lie. And that's where I'm not sure. Because social engineering comes with pentesting a lot.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Nirex

[Beggar for the Spirit]

I see what you are saying Regina and I appreciate your desire to have a good conscience before Jehovah.

So as a possible suggestion, instead of jobs with the government that involve intelligence/defense or jobs with companies that may involve lying/deception,  how about "white hat" or ethical hacker jobs that use penetration testing techniques to test an organization's IT security and identify vulnerabilities but with no social engineering or deception of employees? For example, a job that focuses on testing and identifying vulnerabilities in the companies' network, software, in the website, etc, so the job may only involve working with code and computers but with no social engineering or lying. 

 

Also, you may or may not have one but I understand that a "Certified Ethical Hacker" (CEH) certification is recommended, helps in finding jobs, and CEH certified people are in demand. I don't know if any of this is helpful, but here is another thought I had.

 

How about Computer "Forensics"? 

There is a "Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator" (CHFI) position in which this person is hired to investigate network traffic issues, recovering deleted files, cracking passwords, etc. This kind of job may work well with your skill set and these jobs at certain companies may not involve any politics, national defense, lying, deception, etc. You seem very knowledgeable and a good company would want to have someone like you who is very honest and trustworthy.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Beggar for the Spirit

[Nirex]

Thanks for the ideas, forensics may be a one to go for.

 

But for the deception thing. You'd be surprised what companies do it. When I interned at Synovus Bank. The company put an email out one of those tax  fraud things. They told us in the cybersecurity room about it. Basically any employee that clicks on it is taken to a page telling they'd been caught. And it showed the statistics of how many employees still needed training to not fall for things. The company themselves did this deception.

[Shawnster]

On 6/10/2020 at 6:02 AM, Nirex said:

I know we don't do politics or be any occupations that require dishonesty (lying lawyers). But how far in the government can we work?

Do you know this because you have researched this or are you going by what you have been told?  

 

This is an opportunity for you to do some research.  What have you found?  This would be better than information related by even experienced and seasoned Christians. 

[Nemo]

Um you could work for the library or any of the Cyber Security Departments within those parameters . I work for the government but in regards to education. There’s no shady stuff just fixing broken or damaged computers. Sometimes doing work remotely and fixing servers from other locations. In regards to hacking. It would be just maintaining the firewall and making sure that if someone does an attack to collect there data and IP or ISP info for prosecution. Like maintaining an ILS system, for instance just look into it they usually pay well and come with insurance.