Switching sides

The death of the Philippines’ beloved former President Corazon Aquino is not the only thing uniting adversary forces nowadays. The increasing threats to cyber security is also causing law enforcers to embrace their long-standing enemies, the hackers. [The enemies are called crackers really, as explained in class, but I’ll just use hackers since it’s more widely used].

The United States Defense Department recently announced that its agents are returning to DEFCON this year, not to investigate on any illegal activities, but in order to recruit hackers to become federal agents. DEFCON is the world’s longest running and largest underground hacking conference, held annually since 1993. It has been reported that there are a couple of hundred positions involving cyber security to be offered to the hacker community during the DEFCON, the attendees of which were characterized by the Defense Department as comprised of 95% good guys.

Hackers looking for a challenge can definitely get their share of thrills by working for the government. Cyber security is a very hot issue nowadays and is sure to get more attention from both the government and the media. However, hackers are not only looking for intellectual stimulation but are also motivated by economic rewards. I hope the US government also offers an attractive compensation package so that these computer wizzes will not only be attracted to apply but will actually stay in these crucial positions. After all, the private and the underground sectors offer very high rewards to extremely talented computer hackers/crackers.