DHS Seeks "Ethical Hackers" To Protect Federal Net Infrastructure

Death Metal sends this excerpt from an AP report: "General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could 'think like the bad guy.' Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems. In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011. With warnings that the US is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology (PDF) to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes. ... Nadia Short, vice president at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, said the job posting for ethical hackers fills a critical need for the government."

priorities, priorities...

[martas]

let me get this straight, they're training tens (hundreds?) of thousands of various kinds of soldiers each year, and they're aiming to train only 250 "cyberexperts" a year by 2011? And this after all the "reports" about russia and china bullying the entire world, including the US, with their DoS and other kinds of attacks? I see, if you can't see it explode, then it can't hurt you, right?

Re:Ethical "Hackers".. of course

[Anonymous Coward]

Words, definitions and languages change, get over it.

It's been that way for 1000's of years. Long before the "media" took over.

Tin-foil hat time

[pongo000]

Has anyone considered this is just another version of the common ploy police use to round up criminals with outstanding warrants? They entice these people using false pretenses, then arrest them when they show up.

I'm not saying this is the case here, but what better way to build up a database of hackers (i.e., possible terrorists)?

Re:From the article :)

[spydabyte]

If you're good enough, you'll remove the other applicants as well, and be the last man standing.

I personally enjoy International Capture The Flag [ucsb.edu]

Hacker Honeypot

[littlewink]

They don't want to hire them, they want to catch them.

Anyone stupid enough to show an interest will be repaid by having their background and their "back" proctoscoped by the Feds.

Re:Actually

[Ihmhi]

Wouldn't people just start deleting the competition?

"Hey, only this one guy left a resume... also, he apparently installed SELinux and closed the buffer overrun vulnerability..."