3 ms·

On Linkedin there's all kinds of "Top Secret/Security Clearance" groups which lists all the members in that group. Some have 5 thousand people. Sure, some of t

On Linkedin there's all kinds of "Top Secret/Security Clearance" groups which lists all the members in that group. Some have 5 thousand people. Sure, some of those users don't actually have clearance at all, but many actually do, and work at firms all doing contracting for the federal government. Call me crazy, but giving out a list of people with clearance to the highest levels of secrets, usually doing tech work, is a bad idea. Even if a tiny fraction of them has anything that can be used as leverage to flip them, they all have targets on their backs and it kinda blows my mind that they all run around proudly plastering such things on their profiles and in public groups. It seems that's the last thing they would all be doing, as to not draw any attention from "the enemy" "TS/SCI cleared IT Professionals" - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3967699/ https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3967699/

permo-w 3y ago
in a similar area, it absolutely pains me to see the amount of personal information demanded by online job applications. realistically how hard would it be for me to set up a fake job listing on Indeed and just hoover up highly valuable PII? you could even take it further with personality tests, IQ scores, RATs, etc. if you were a foreign power wanting to gather data on defence programmers, for blackmail, corruption, surveillance etc, why wouldn't you do this?
- wutwutwat 3y ago
  I've been personally dealing with this exact thing. And it doesn't help that linkedin is a shit show of fake companies and job postings that seem to be doing exactly what you said, phishing for PII. Like, why the fuck is a job application asking me for my address? It's a remote job, the absolute most you would ever need is my city. There's a lot of companies that think I'm the very lucky resident at 123 Main St :) The day a job application asks for my SSN is the day I quit tech for good and go work for cash only under the table
  - permo-w 3y ago
    I had an interview with a recruiter recently where I asked them about their data protection practices and they put the phone down on me
jonnybgood 3y ago
It’s pretty normal for job seeking since there are jobs that require a clearance before any other consideration. There’s a whole job site dedicated to clearances. https://www.clearancejobs.com https://www.clearancejobs.com
- wutwutwat 3y ago
  Nice now I know where my moles need to submit their resumes!
- warner25 3y ago
  Normal and allowed, yes, but I share the sentiment that it makes me a little uneasy. I don't mention my clearance on my LinkedIn page, and I'm vague about many other things. Of course, anybody who understands this stuff (like any foreign intelligence agency) could probably infer who's cleared Secret vs. TS/SCI vs. NSA polygraph, etc. based on other information like job skills, locations, and military rank / time-in-service. I'm also not job seeking, just using it as a rolodex in case I ever need it later. Maybe I'll need to lay out the details if I ever do use it for job seeking.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
pvg 3y ago
I'm not going to call you crazy but the opposite policy - trying to keep these secret would definitely be crazy. It would be impractical, ineffective and at odds with all sorts of notions of an open, democratic society.
- wutwutwat 3y ago
  Not mentioning something Vs. putting it on blast online are two ends of a spectrum of common sense when you have access to privileged information that others are willing to kill, in extreme cases, to obtain. This is the only time I can think of where security through obscurity actually can have an impact on your life, and the lives of those around you.
  - pvg 3y ago
    There's no such threat against almost everybody with clearances.
    - wutwutwat 3y ago
      Then why is security clearance required? This is the same level of clearance that Snowden had. He had access to be able to leak a bunch of programs that he literally was worried about being murdered for exposing. If he had access to information he might be killed by exposing, you don't think he and everyone else at that level has the ability to gain access to information someone else might be willing to kill in order to obtain? Cmon now, no such threat, that's ridiculous. People have killed people for a name, of course they will kill to get into these systems.
      - pvg 3y ago
        no such threat, that's ridiculous There are 140 stars on the CIA memorial wall total, which includes plenty of wars and combat zones. There's no serious threat to almost all people who have a security clearance. Quds Force is not scraping LinkedIn for the names of these people.

permo-w 3y ago

in a similar area, it absolutely pains me to see the amount of personal information demanded by online job applications. realistically how hard would it be for me to set up a fake job listing on Indeed and just hoover up highly valuable PII? you could even take it further with personality tests, IQ scores, RATs, etc. if you were a foreign power wanting to gather data on defence programmers, for blackmail, corruption, surveillance etc, why wouldn't you do this?

wutwutwat 3y ago
I've been personally dealing with this exact thing. And it doesn't help that linkedin is a shit show of fake companies and job postings that seem to be doing exactly what you said, phishing for PII. Like, why the fuck is a job application asking me for my address? It's a remote job, the absolute most you would ever need is my city. There's a lot of companies that think I'm the very lucky resident at 123 Main St :) The day a job application asks for my SSN is the day I quit tech for good and go work for cash only under the table
- permo-w 3y ago
  I had an interview with a recruiter recently where I asked them about their data protection practices and they put the phone down on me

jonnybgood 3y ago

It’s pretty normal for job seeking since there are jobs that require a clearance before any other consideration. There’s a whole job site dedicated to clearances. https://www.clearancejobs.com https://www.clearancejobs.com

wutwutwat 3y ago
Nice now I know where my moles need to submit their resumes!
warner25 3y ago
Normal and allowed, yes, but I share the sentiment that it makes me a little uneasy. I don't mention my clearance on my LinkedIn page, and I'm vague about many other things. Of course, anybody who understands this stuff (like any foreign intelligence agency) could probably infer who's cleared Secret vs. TS/SCI vs. NSA polygraph, etc. based on other information like job skills, locations, and military rank / time-in-service. I'm also not job seeking, just using it as a rolodex in case I ever need it later. Maybe I'll need to lay out the details if I ever do use it for job seeking.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

pvg 3y ago

I'm not going to call you crazy but the opposite policy - trying to keep these secret would definitely be crazy. It would be impractical, ineffective and at odds with all sorts of notions of an open, democratic society.

wutwutwat 3y ago
Not mentioning something Vs. putting it on blast online are two ends of a spectrum of common sense when you have access to privileged information that others are willing to kill, in extreme cases, to obtain. This is the only time I can think of where security through obscurity actually can have an impact on your life, and the lives of those around you.
- pvg 3y ago
  There's no such threat against almost everybody with clearances.
  - wutwutwat 3y ago
    Then why is security clearance required? This is the same level of clearance that Snowden had. He had access to be able to leak a bunch of programs that he literally was worried about being murdered for exposing. If he had access to information he might be killed by exposing, you don't think he and everyone else at that level has the ability to gain access to information someone else might be willing to kill in order to obtain? Cmon now, no such threat, that's ridiculous. People have killed people for a name, of course they will kill to get into these systems.
    - pvg 3y ago
      no such threat, that's ridiculous There are 140 stars on the CIA memorial wall total, which includes plenty of wars and combat zones. There's no serious threat to almost all people who have a security clearance. Quds Force is not scraping LinkedIn for the names of these people.