[haburka]

I don’t think the US has a similar level of penetration. They don’t let people who smoke weed work for the federal government. Additionally, the pay and job is just worse than doing cyber security for big tech. This means any decent hackers stay very far away from working for the feds.

[Starman_Jones]

I understand where you're coming from, but let me offer a different perspective. There's a certain class of individual who loves the challenge of "breaking" something, but prefers the reduced problem space, risk mitigation, and formal validation that such a job provides. Look at the schools with the top cybersecurity competition teams, and you'll find fertile recruiting ground for such individuals. The NSA knows this, and actively recruits these individuals from these schools. Arguably, they provide a more comfortable working environment for those so inclined than your typical big tech job would provide. With regards to the effectiveness, the recent Kaspersky hacks should show that the feds have some capability in this regard.

[CobaltFire]

There are quite a few scary competent people working on this type of thing in various places in the federal government.

Not everyone wants to work on the stuff that SV pays for, or the finance people pay for.