What I Learned at Hacker Camp

[donsu]

http://netscape.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060403_499982.htm?campaign_id=netscape_tech


It's easy to create malicious code, penetrate firewalls, and steal personal and financial information. "Ethical hacker" Andrew Whitaker can show you how


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"PRETTY SWEET." I am in a classroom full of middle-aged high-tech system administrators. They're all men, from all over the country, attending the $4,300-a-week course to brush up on the skills needed to combat a rising tide of computer threats.

Mainly, they work for computer makers and software firms, and boy do they love their computers. One describes the tension between himself and his wife over how much he uses the computer. Another student agrees. "Don't make me choose, because you won't like the outcome," he says, to raucous laughter.

Each time Whitaker unveils a new way to compromise a company's security, "Cool!" is exclaimed throughout the room. Even Whitaker, who tackles hacking challenges in his spare time, pauses from time to time to ask, "Pretty sweet, huh?" It's a bad-boy thrill, and it's as infectious as the attacks we're trying to thwart.

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ALARMING LAPSES. And here's what may be the scariest part: to be a hacker, you don't even have to be a hardcore techie or particularly good at writing code. Take me, for instance. I'm an English major who hasn't written a line of code since third grade when I wrote a BASIC program that quizzed you on state capitals. Camp got started at 9 a.m., and within an hour, I was hacking into fictional banks' Microsoft databases and retrieving credit card numbers

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So, do ethical hackers go bad, I wonder aloud? Whitaker says he knows of a few cases, but companies like his screen candidates carefully. They have to be gainfully employed in the security field and must sign waivers saying they won't use these tricks for ill. For more sophisticated classes there are background and criminal checks. In any case, the sad truth is that anyone who wants to be a hacker can do so these days -- with or without these classes.
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thought you all would find this as interesting as I did

(wondering: women are not system administrators?)