The United States may have indicted a group of Chinese army officials for cyberespionage, but the FBI has a problem of its own: weed. The bureau is struggling to hire young hackers because its longstanding drug policy does not allow the use of marijuana. Unfortunately, hackers like their weed.
“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” FBI director James B Comey told a White Collar Crime Institute conference on Monday. Theoretically, the bureau’s hiring policy states that applicants cannot use marijuana for at least three years before applying for a job.
But with 2,000 positions to fill this year, the FBI may have to relax its no-drugs policy if it wants to win the cyberwar. Asked by a member of the audience if his stoner friend could apply for a job at the bureau, Comey suggested he “should go ahead and apply”. On May 21, the US laid criminal charges on five Chinese military officials accused of masterminding government-led cyberhacking to steal trade secrets from six major American companies.