Are there no American Hackers?

[Chasstev365]

Why can't someone do some hacking to prove tbe Trump owes the Russians millions and can easily be blackmailed?

That is one of the reality of what the hell is going on. The man can't handle any criticsism, yet constantly praises Putin and wants to play nice with Russia. WTF?

[onecaliberal]

1. It appears they're all on the other team.

[pangaia]

2. We need Lisbeth Salander.

[KamaAina]

5. Um, she's Swedish.

[pangaia]

8. She can work from Stockholm. 😎

[bettyellen]

3. Hackers are notoriously misogynistic, they'd not lift a finger if it bolstered Hillary.

[Bucky]

4. there's plenty of American hackers. But they all work in the porn industry

or at least retail. Russia's gov't has a lot of hackers, because the government job is one of the few ones that can get. Their economy's in the tubes. so they hire them to monkey with us, because it's better to have such people inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in. (Hat tip to LBJ for that metaphor.)

The fact that they are going after our elections shows how strong our society is compared to their relatively insecure place in the world. Putin is lashing out the way he is at US democracy and other countries' democracies because Russia doesn't have a lot of options right now, geopolitically speaking.

It's probably also worth noting that to become a hacker you pretty much have to learn English. Americans are really bad at learning Russian, so we have less of a talent pool to go after them.

[safeinOhio]

6. They can't read

Russian.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. Hack everyone on Trump's team...find communications between them and Russia. Geez too

bad we don't have subpoena power to get his cell phone records

[FarCenter]

9. One tiny part

http://www.arcyber.army.mil/Pages/ArcyberHome.aspx

[Lee-Lee]

10. Part of the problem is the US has strict standards for hiring and Russia doesnt

Any position regarding hacking is going to require a security clearance.

The standards for getting a security clearance will weed out almost all hackers, sadly.

Drug use is a bar, aside from previous marijuana use if it's admitted to and has ceased. Any ongoing drug use is a bar.

Criminal history can be a show stopper in most cases.

Bankruptcy or a pattern of fiscal irresponsibility is a show stopper.

And much more. It boils down to if you have anything in your life that shows a pattern of bad decision making, disregard for the law, or opens you up to being blackmailed or bribed you will likely never get a clearance.

That is if they are even willing to work for the government, most would not be open to even entertaining the idea.

That means most of the US cyber team is not people who got really good and then were recruited because they were the best of the best, but rather people who were ok at it and eligible who we try and then develop into much better hackers once recruited and cleared.

It doesn't always get you the most skilled. Sometimes that really good hacker is eligible and is willing to be recruited big I imagine it is rare.

Russia, on the other hand, works the opposite way. They don't care about compromising things in your background, in fact they look for them. They look for that hacker who is good and can do what they want and then make sure they catch them on something, trumped up or real, and tell the it is work for us with a goood paycheck or go to jail, keep the secret or you will be disappeared. It's a forced loyalty and team, but it gets them what they want in a much more effective way. If you are a good hacker in Russia you will work for the Russian government, period, they will make sure of it.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes, there are American hackers. But, they're not so much good guys,

either. Most hacking is malicious and the people who do hacking are generally not fine upstanding citizens. Hacking is a crime, as anyone who has experienced it will affirm. It's always a violation of someone's systems and privacy and is almost never done for good reasons.

Now, we do need hackers working on our side to combat hacking by nations. And we have them, I'm sure, but they may not always be the best of the breed. There's too much money to be made from criminal hacking, it seems, for people to go seeking boring establishment jobs, which pay poorly and don't offer the same excitement and challenges.

Hackers are really not our friends. Truly, they're not.