NSA's Expensive Computer Systems Fail, So They Go Shopping In Silicon Valley
from the shop-away dept
Remember all the stories about how screwed up the FBI's hyped up new computer system was? The one that went way over budget and was eventually scrapped because it wasn't actually useful for fighting terrorism? Yeah, well, it turns out they weren't the only government agency to spend millions of dollars on a crappy, useless computer system. You can add the NSA to the list, as the Baltimore Sun is reporting that the secretive agency has two massive computer projects that have been nothing but trouble, holding back the agency's efforts to fight terrorism (where have we heard this before...?). From the report, it seems to suggest that billions of dollars have been wasted on the combined systems and the end results are: "agency computers have trouble talking to each other and frequently crash, key bits of data are sometimes lost, and vital intelligence can be overlooked." Meanwhile, rather than focusing on fixing it, the article suggests that people in the NSA are working hard to... make sure this info doesn't get out to the press (too late for that, apparently). Perhaps all that explains why a group of folks from the NSA came out to Silicon Valley earlier this month to ask VCs to find them companies that make technology that actually works for all of their data mining efforts.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Hmmm ...
Let me guess, they switched from using Supercomputer and large UNIX systems to using Dell and Microsoft ...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hmmm ...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hmmm ...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NSA..
A Story: 20-some years ago, when I was a senior in college, I took the NSA entrance exam...really, it was the best-designed intelligence/entrance test I have ever taken.....(due to radical leftist politics, and substantial substance abuse history, i couldn't pursue NSA employment any further..)
Lately, I have been checking the NSA Website every so often...it seems it has eliminated this test, which i think would be a shame, (Unless the NSA has taken this test so private that it does not mention it on its website...)
Anyone know anyone about this?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Unfortunate, but not uncommon...
1) Too many chiefs, not enough chieftains;
2) Management tends to micro-manage, even if only to be able to CYA;
3) The hiring and engineer selection process is generally done by a combination of non-technical types, and engineers who have been out to pasture for a very long time;
4) The wide shopping list of features often goes into serious feature-creep, is constantly a changing target, and is generally not a proper feature list.
I do not wish to sound overly negative. Many, many government-produced projects have gone very well (one does not hear about these in the news). However, it is healthy for the American public to know when their government does not get a quality product – public failure is an effective (if quite harsh) means of keeping the powers that be concerned about effective systems.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
By the way, you can always tell the insiders from their use of "the". It is correct to say "the CIA", or "the NRO", but no intelligence geek would say "the NSA". Its just "NSA", as in "I will be at NSA all afternoon". You would not say "I pray to the God this project goes ok", would you?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Must be J2EE
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Unfortunate, but not uncommon...
From your list.
1) Politics
2) The project is put on someone's performance review
3) Politics, again
4) feature-creep, remember when Word was Word? What the heck is it now??
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hmmm ...
Don't underestimate Corporate America's ability to screw it up just as bad or worse than the gov.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Blog entry about this
http://projectfailures.com/blog/2006/5/1/big-secrets-or-big-lies.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]