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Comment by azalemeth | Hacker News Reader

I really think this article, like many others, is part of a post-Snowden propaganda push. They know they've lost the hearts and minds of nerds -- that's why we now encrypt everything. Where once GCHQ et al were desirable places to work, now I am very much sure that the vibe among the people they want to attract is far from positive. Just look at the HN discussion, for example.

One of my friends is an academic computer scientist, working on steganography, specifically steganalysis -- trying to do the inverse problems like "given 1e12 cat pictures, find the one with hidden information". GCHQ often like to talk to him about his work.

He has spoken of it being filled with mathematicians too socially inept to have an academic career...

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> Just look at the HN discussion, for example.

Isn't this an obviously biased sample? People who work at GCHQ can't talk about it, even if they enjoy it.

And for the few who are allowed to discuss it and enjoy working there they won't talk about it because, as you say, look at the HN discussion.

What percentage of mathematicians would that be?

You just need enough, given unlimited computational budgets.

> Where once GCHQ et al were desirable places to work

From a US perspective, Britain has low salaries in the private sector, but the civil service is even worse.

You would have to squint carefully at the benefits before joining.

I’m not sure what spurred you into action to offer up... well this... but do please keep in mind that many of us outside the USA don’t put money ahead of literally everything else in life as most Americans seem to.

Anything more you care to say about what most Americans seem to ...

You have to have quite the vantage point to have insight like that.

It’s more than likely that you all on the other side of the Atlantic aren’t our betters

It's exactly the same in the US public service. The TLA's have been complaining about it for years and they are essentially hamstrung with defined public service salaries. It's a shitty situation for natsec operators and institutionally hard to change.

All of which has essentially led to the proliferation of greymarkets for exploits like Zerodium et al.

The situation is likely far worse for the States than the UK as the salary differential is greater and the agencies can only hire citizens. Do note that the US government is now the biggest buyer of malware on the planet, not really that surprising when you look at the circumstances.

I'm a software engineer working in the UK Civil Service for the last 5 years after a 15 year career in the private sector (including a few short stints in Menlo Park). You are right, the money is far, far from the best I could earn but then on top of the 8 days of public holidays I get 30 days leave (plus an extra day for the Queen's birthday, gawd bless 'er), flexible working hours, a pension that's worth way more than I accrued privately and a cultural abhorrence workhouse practices I've experienced in the private sector.

Best of all, I get to work on systems which touch entire populations.

I guess Type-X personalities need not apply.

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