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A comment on UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k. Parent comment

Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by sandworm101 on Sunday April 02, 2023 @06:56AM (#35409233)
I seriously doubt that the head of cyber security at such a place would ever do any coding. The primary job would be administrative, the needed skill the management of people. 55k is a joke, but lets not pretend that this position requires l33t hacking skills. This is a job about hiring and firing people, about selecting policy and judging the qualification of prospective contractors. And it's a job about writing reports and presenting them to higher authorities and investigative committees, not the sort of things taught at bootcamps.
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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by FartyMcFarter on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:01AM (#35409265)
But if you never did any coding, you may not understand enough to effectively lead a team of people who do that.

For example, how are you going to understand what's going on or resolve technical conflicts? Just outsourcing all the decisions probably makes you much less useful.

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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by roundandround on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:26AM (#35409425)
The people this manager leads will also not be coders. Governments make virtually no software and any of that would be in a group that is still not connected to the group overseeing overall security.

If he has a windows machine he is familiar with what it does on Tuesdays.. From there its learning about CVEs, etc..

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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by dukeyukey on Sunday April 02, 2023 @08:10AM (#35409726)
Can't talk about this department specifically, but the UK government does have a tech department (GDS, Government Digital Service), and they're actually really good, especially in accessibility.
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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by sandworm101 on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:19AM (#35409366)
Such skills are certainly a bonus, but they would not be a requirement. It is common thinking that every good general should first have been a good footsoldier. The reality is that the vast majority of great generals never were. The most important skills for senior leaders to succeed are rarely similar to those needed to succeed on the front lines of any project.
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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by Aeolun on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:29AM (#35409446)
> The reality is that the vast majority of great generals never were.

There’s a fuckton of terrible generals that were never foot soldiers. How does that ratio relate to the number of terrible generals that were?

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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by rwalle on Sunday April 02, 2023 @08:10AM (#35409723)
I have to ask, have you ever been a manager at any level at any company? Are you just imagining all these things?
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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by sandworm101 on Sunday April 02, 2023 @08:20AM (#35409798)
Actually, was a manger in the private sector (legal) and am now in the public sector (military). I have seen both sides and have seen managers succeed and fail in both transitions.
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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by flixing on Sunday April 02, 2023 @07:19AM (#35409364)
So not true
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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by camdenreslink on Sunday April 02, 2023 @08:09AM (#35409721)
Head of cyber security at a private company would be somebody with a career of hands-on security work, that has moved up into management. This person would absolutely know how to do the job of their reports.

Why should the government be any different?

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Re:UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k by sandworm101 on Sunday April 02, 2023 @08:17AM (#35409775)
Because this isnt a private company. This person first needs the skills to integrate and exist within a government structure. Management of public employees within a government is very different than at will employees within a private organization. Working under politically appointed or elected adminstrators is also very different than working for a CEO.
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