waltky
08-11-2005, 03:52 AM
Wed Aug 10, 2005
Attention hackers: Uncle Sam wants you.
As scam artists, organized-crime rings and other miscreants find a home on the Internet, top federal officials are trolling hacker conferences to scout talent and talk up the glories of a career on the front lines of the information wars.
"If you want to work on cutting-edge problems, if you want to be part of the truly great issues of our time ... we invite you to work with us," Assistant Secretary of Defense Linton Wells told hackers at a recent conference in Las Vegas.
Wells and other "feds" didn't exactly blend in at Defcon, an annual gathering of computer-security experts and teen-age troublemakers that celebrates the cutting edge of security research.
The buttoned-down world of Washington seems a continent away at Defcon, which was named as a spoof on the Pentagon's code for military readiness derived from "defense condition." Graffiti covers the bathroom walls, DJs spin electronic music by the pool until dawn and hackers who "out" undercover government employees win free T-shirts.
At a "Meet the Feds" panel designed to bridge the cultural divide, a young man waved a pages-long manifesto and demanded, "I would like to know why the federal government, especially some of the law enforcement agencies, are destroying this country."
Despite appearances, hackers and the government have long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.
Federal research dollars funded development of the Internet and many other cutting-edge technologies, and many hackers first learn the ins and outs of computer security through military service before moving on to private-sector jobs.
More (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-08-10T195853Z_01_N04713432_RTRIDST_0_TECH-TECH-HACKERS-DC.XML)
Attention hackers: Uncle Sam wants you.
As scam artists, organized-crime rings and other miscreants find a home on the Internet, top federal officials are trolling hacker conferences to scout talent and talk up the glories of a career on the front lines of the information wars.
"If you want to work on cutting-edge problems, if you want to be part of the truly great issues of our time ... we invite you to work with us," Assistant Secretary of Defense Linton Wells told hackers at a recent conference in Las Vegas.
Wells and other "feds" didn't exactly blend in at Defcon, an annual gathering of computer-security experts and teen-age troublemakers that celebrates the cutting edge of security research.
The buttoned-down world of Washington seems a continent away at Defcon, which was named as a spoof on the Pentagon's code for military readiness derived from "defense condition." Graffiti covers the bathroom walls, DJs spin electronic music by the pool until dawn and hackers who "out" undercover government employees win free T-shirts.
At a "Meet the Feds" panel designed to bridge the cultural divide, a young man waved a pages-long manifesto and demanded, "I would like to know why the federal government, especially some of the law enforcement agencies, are destroying this country."
Despite appearances, hackers and the government have long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.
Federal research dollars funded development of the Internet and many other cutting-edge technologies, and many hackers first learn the ins and outs of computer security through military service before moving on to private-sector jobs.
More (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-08-10T195853Z_01_N04713432_RTRIDST_0_TECH-TECH-HACKERS-DC.XML)