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Booz Allen Statement on Reports of Leaked Information

67 points by emhart 13y ago

emhart 13y ago
Looks like Snowden's former position is available as well: http://careers.boozallen.com/job/Honolulu-Information-Security-Engineer%2C-Mid-Job-HI-96801/2280056/ http://careers.boozallen.com/job/Honolulu-Information-Securi...
- danso 13y ago
  Obviously the slides didn't come from Booz Allen, they have many jobs requiring PowerPoint experience: http://careers.boozallen.com/mobile/job/Herndon-System-Integrator-Job-VA-20170/2649992/ http://careers.boozallen.com/mobile/job/Herndon-System-Integ...
skwirl 13y ago
There's nothing interesting or unexpected about this statement at all.
pstuart 13y ago
Yeah, he technically did something wrong, but Booz Allen should come into the spotlight, as they are profiting from this nastiness. Fuck them.
- SCAQTony 13y ago
  Well, Booz Hamilton Allen is now a dirty word in Europe, Asia, and probably even in the US now. WHo the hell is going to want to contract out to them now?
  - rollo_tommasi 13y ago
    BAH is a massive corporation full of ex-government officials, and vice-versa; the current Director of National Intelligence is a former BAH executive. They're gonna be ok.
    - wadetandy 13y ago
      A current BAH executive is also the former DNI.
rdtsc 13y ago
Booz Allen -- one of my personal most hated companies. They are known for being incompetent, wasteful and for getting contracts by being in bed with everyone else in the government. Not unlike other military industrial contractors but they do take it up a couple of notches. They put "butts in seats" and then charge up the nose for it. Those butts in seats don't know how to finish the project, so they put more butts in seats and charge even more. If it wasn't for all the red tape and the good ol boys network, just going around and re-doing all the mega-expensive and broken Booz Allen contracts behind them at the fraction of a cost would be a good start-up idea.
- ianhawes 13y ago
  BAH, SAIC, CSC, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman are all infamous, when it comes to software projects, for being completely incompetent. What you've described is my experience as well. 9 times out of 10, when a project actually needs to be completed, the task is subcontracted out to a much smaller company who will actually do the coding.
- mpyne 13y ago
  I've not dealt with BAH personally but they were also on my "Least Favored Government Contractors" list. A friend of mine left the service and ended up with a job there, which is where I first heard of them. SAIC was the one that leaked a bunch of PII, and in stupendously stupid fashion, so they're also on my crap list. At least Electric Boat (part of General Dynamics) and Newport News Shipbuilding actually builds stuff right the first time. Bath Iron Works I've heard good things about as well. I wish I could think of very good tech contractors that help the government, but that would imply the government has very good tech systems...
- masto 13y ago
  I once worked on a project that came to our company after BAH screwed it up. Ten years and $12.5M of the $13M budget had been spent, mostly on first-class travel, five star hotels, and meetings. They literally had built nothing in all that time.
- JPKab 13y ago
  The culture varies dramatically from contract to contract. I have a buddy who is an excellent developer, works on a small team, and gets stuff done. He works there. The "butts in seats" contracts? They are always going to be bad. The incentives create this issue. I worked at a 6 person company that grew to 150 employees in 3 years, mainly on "butts in seats" contracts that failed.
zenocon 13y ago
Booz Allen Hamilton "In The News" page highly ironic. Check the first three items. http://www.boozallen.com/media-center/press-highlights http://www.boozallen.com/media-center/press-highlights 1 Where to Find - And How to Woo - Your Next Hires 2 Application Vulnerabilities Remain Security's Biggest Concern 3 Stopping Hacks from Stealing Corporate Secrets or Disrupting Electric Service
moomin 13y ago
Clearly their "core values" differ from mine. And America's.
hoffmabc 13y ago
All of this being said could be told about any government contractor. The company is 24,500 strong and not all people are working on incompetent projects. I've worked for several contractors and they all have their own issues. As far as butts in seats, they are nowhere near as bad as Deloitte or SAIC or others of their ilk. No one knows if this is a project primed by Booz or they have just this one guy contributing as a subcontractor so I would slow your rolls down.

67 points by emhart 13y ago

Looks like Snowden's former position is available as well: http://careers.boozallen.com/job/Honolulu-Information-Security-Engineer%2C-Mid-Job-HI-96801/2280056/ http://careers.boozallen.com/job/Honolulu-Information-Securi...

danso 13y ago
Obviously the slides didn't come from Booz Allen, they have many jobs requiring PowerPoint experience: http://careers.boozallen.com/mobile/job/Herndon-System-Integrator-Job-VA-20170/2649992/ http://careers.boozallen.com/mobile/job/Herndon-System-Integ...

skwirl 13y ago

There's nothing interesting or unexpected about this statement at all.

pstuart 13y ago

Yeah, he technically did something wrong, but Booz Allen should come into the spotlight, as they are profiting from this nastiness. Fuck them.

SCAQTony 13y ago
Well, Booz Hamilton Allen is now a dirty word in Europe, Asia, and probably even in the US now. WHo the hell is going to want to contract out to them now?
- rollo_tommasi 13y ago
  BAH is a massive corporation full of ex-government officials, and vice-versa; the current Director of National Intelligence is a former BAH executive. They're gonna be ok.
  - wadetandy 13y ago
    A current BAH executive is also the former DNI.

rdtsc 13y ago

Booz Allen -- one of my personal most hated companies. They are known for being incompetent, wasteful and for getting contracts by being in bed with everyone else in the government. Not unlike other military industrial contractors but they do take it up a couple of notches. They put "butts in seats" and then charge up the nose for it. Those butts in seats don't know how to finish the project, so they put more butts in seats and charge even more. If it wasn't for all the red tape and the good ol boys network, just going around and re-doing all the mega-expensive and broken Booz Allen contracts behind them at the fraction of a cost would be a good start-up idea.

ianhawes 13y ago
BAH, SAIC, CSC, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman are all infamous, when it comes to software projects, for being completely incompetent. What you've described is my experience as well. 9 times out of 10, when a project actually needs to be completed, the task is subcontracted out to a much smaller company who will actually do the coding.
mpyne 13y ago
I've not dealt with BAH personally but they were also on my "Least Favored Government Contractors" list. A friend of mine left the service and ended up with a job there, which is where I first heard of them. SAIC was the one that leaked a bunch of PII, and in stupendously stupid fashion, so they're also on my crap list. At least Electric Boat (part of General Dynamics) and Newport News Shipbuilding actually builds stuff right the first time. Bath Iron Works I've heard good things about as well. I wish I could think of very good tech contractors that help the government, but that would imply the government has very good tech systems...
masto 13y ago
I once worked on a project that came to our company after BAH screwed it up. Ten years and $12.5M of the $13M budget had been spent, mostly on first-class travel, five star hotels, and meetings. They literally had built nothing in all that time.
JPKab 13y ago
The culture varies dramatically from contract to contract. I have a buddy who is an excellent developer, works on a small team, and gets stuff done. He works there. The "butts in seats" contracts? They are always going to be bad. The incentives create this issue. I worked at a 6 person company that grew to 150 employees in 3 years, mainly on "butts in seats" contracts that failed.

zenocon 13y ago

Booz Allen Hamilton "In The News" page highly ironic. Check the first three items. http://www.boozallen.com/media-center/press-highlights http://www.boozallen.com/media-center/press-highlights 1 Where to Find - And How to Woo - Your Next Hires 2 Application Vulnerabilities Remain Security's Biggest Concern 3 Stopping Hacks from Stealing Corporate Secrets or Disrupting Electric Service

moomin 13y ago

Clearly their "core values" differ from mine. And America's.

hoffmabc 13y ago

All of this being said could be told about any government contractor. The company is 24,500 strong and not all people are working on incompetent projects. I've worked for several contractors and they all have their own issues. As far as butts in seats, they are nowhere near as bad as Deloitte or SAIC or others of their ilk. No one knows if this is a project primed by Booz or they have just this one guy contributing as a subcontractor so I would slow your rolls down.