National CERT needs war room staff

Australia's national computer emergency response team (AusCERT) is to employ two security analysts this year and see no difficulties in securing top-grade security researchers and professionals.

The lure of working with a national CERT is enough to attract the best talent, even if the pay isn't in the higher echelons according to AusCERT operations manager Karl Hanmore. Hanmore doesn't believe a perceived drought in Australian IT skill sets will hinder them in finding ideal employees as everyone is keen to work for a national CERT.

The security analyst role involves performing technical and operational support, incident response and development of security tools and training materials and must be, according to AusCERT documents, "able to demonstrate a level of integrity commensurate with a position of trust".

Remuneration is between $54,343 to $67,270 annually depending on skills and experience.

Hanmore said the "engine room" describes perfectly where the analysts will work. The bottom line, according to Hanmore, is the agency has been aiming to expand its operations for a while and work will increasingly focus around analyzing malicious code and where this code interacts with botnets.

"The reason we are hiring is literally we do not have enough people to do the job we have to do and we want good quality people to come in and add to our team, which currently has around 20 members," Hanmore said.

"Generally speaking, security resources at the moment are in a state of under supply and over demand; however we do not expect to have any problems attracting staff as there are people out there trying to make a difference and do something perhaps outside a day-to-day corporate environment.

"The university doesn't have the luxury of high salaries to attract good staff, but at AusCERT we have never had a problem attracting high-quality staff as everyone is keen to work for Australia's national CERT."

AusCERT is an operational division within the University of Queensland. The closing date for applications is February 23, 2007. Applications can be mailed to the human resources and staff development consultant, Information Technology Services, the University of Queensland, QLD, 4072.

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