Why Silicon Valley Hackers Still Won’t Work With the Military, and Vice Versa

In the fight to defend cyberspace from its enemies, the US military is rushing to hire as many skilled hackers as it can. But no one is really sure how to get the two cultures to coexist.

Although the feds have implied they're willing to loosen up some of their policies so that weed-smoking, basement-dwelling hacker stereotypes can work for government agencies, there are still some significant hurdles preventing the two industries from working together in earnest.

At the first annual Future of War Conference on Wednesday, a panel of experts weighed in on the simmering Silicon Valley culture clash after an audience member asked why the US doesn't just militarize Silicon Valley if private sector technology is so far ahead of the government's own.

"The real reason is DoD does not have a culture that would allow them in any way shape or form to manage a silicon valley operation," said Brad Allenby, a faculty member at Arizona State University Center on the Future of War. "Someone high on coke, Skittles and slinging code is not a good candidate for basic training," he later joked.

Peter Singer, a strategist and senior fellow at the think tank New America Foundation, said the chasm between the private tech sector and the government is only widening—a trend that will have big implications for the "extraordinarily difficult" technological components of future war.

"What is striking is the distance between Silicon Valley and the national security establishment, all the more so in the post Snowden era," Singer said. "There is distance in terms of distrust, and there is a legacy effect of that, including what happens if we go to a real war."

The highly technical future of war means the government is hiring thousands more cybersecurity experts a year, but it's unclear whether they will consider stoners for those jobs. Traditionally, the FBI precludes applicants who have used marijuana within the last three years.

FBI Director James Comey famously said last year that it is difficult to hire cyber security experts because, "those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview."

Lisa Monaco, chief counterterrorism adviser to the president, later implied the government may be willing to look the other way on some low-level crimes like smoking weed in order to recruit top talent. According to, Allenby making these kinds of allowances will be necessary if the US hopes to strengthen the cyber side of its military warfare efforts in the future.

"What we need to do is figure out is how to get this very complex or culturally different mix to work together without impeding what makes them unique," Allenby said. "In other words, how do you militarize American soft power without destroying the very thing that makes the soft power powerful? We have a lot of learning to do."