Pentagon Seeking Talented
Hackers
Source: Excite
July 29, 2000
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - The largest-ever convention of
computer hackers opened here on Friday with top-ranking U.S. military
officials offering to hire the elite of the cybervandal world and put
them to work defending against foreign government attacks.
"I invite you to join the government, or private
industry for that matter. But get on the defense side," Art Money,
U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, and the Pentagon’s Chief
Information Officer with responsibility for command, control,
communications and intelligence.
Money and a panel of colleagues from the Pentagon, the
Air Force and Federal police agencies, were at turns cordial,
threatening, moralizing and patriotic in their remarks to the
conference, called DEF CON 8.0, which has drawn up to 5,000 attendees
this year.
"If you are thinking about what you want to do the rest
of your life, then ... maybe you want to come work with us," Money
told a standing-room crowd of hundreds of hackers who paid rapt
attention to his comments and let out only an occasional jeer.
Money took the audience to task for irresponsible
break-ins, citing a little-publicized break-in to a military hospital
two years ago in which he said data on the blood supply was tampered
with, putting lives at risk before it was uncovered.
The surprise appearance by high-ranking military
officials at the once underground event now turned media spectacle
highlighted the seriousness with which U.S. authorities view what they
classify as information warfare threats, from incidents of Web site
vandalism and computer virus scares to unspecified state-sponsored
threats to national security.
It also showcased the transformation of DEF CON, as the
eight-year-old gathering is known, from a controversial summer camp
for teenage and twenty-something computer break-in artists with
criminal arrest records into a mainstream event drawing thousands of
professional network security managers with responsible corporate or
government jobs.
"There’s a lot of people just sitting on the fence,"
said DEF CON founder and organizer Jeff Moss. "Sooner or later you
understand there’s a limited life span to doing this stuff," Moss said
of criminal penalties that can now stretch up to two or three year
prison sentences for some hacking activities. "Maybe (it’s) because
people are just growing up."
The three-day conference includes sessions devoted to
cloaking one’s identity, network "lock-picking," how to break into
every major software system available, including residential,
corporate and government networks. It also involves plenty of poolside
lounging, drunken parties, social mixing and antic behavior from a
crowd that -- at its extremes -- has a variety of participants with
neon green hair and one fellow in military fatigues and a helmet
sprouting deer antlers.
Moss, 30, told reporters afterward that the focus of
this year’s conference was heavily skewed toward technical issues and
meant to discourage those with half-hearted interest in complex
computer security. He said organizers had deliberately downplayed some
of the semi-legal sessions of past years and were focused on provoking
hackers to think more broadly about the consequences of their actions.
"Corporate America is interested in this stuff," said
Moss, who himself started out as a teenage hacker breaking into phone
systems and university computers but later became a consultant for
Secure Computing Corp (SCUR.O), a major computer security firm. "It’s
not just for kiddies anymore," he said.
Internet security and the vulnerability of individual,
business, government and even military computers to attack has become
a daily topic of media coverage worldwide.
This year’s attacks on major Web sites and a wave of
computer virus attacks that have infected millions of computers has
elevated many of the habituates of the hacker underworld to the status
of counter-cultural celebrities on a par with rock stars and leading
social activists.
As the military panel was in progress, a uniformed Navy
recruiting officer stood up at the back of the room, ready to sign up
potential applicants.
But no one rushed forward at a conference where paranoia
about the government’s crackdown on hacking remains high and the "Spot
the Fed Contest" among conference participants is a featured event on
the agenda.
Still, a crowd that had in past years hooted and shouted
down federal prosecutors who dared to appear at the event, was on its
best behavior, perhaps somewhat in awe that an official of Money’s
stature would take time to address them.
The glare of world media attention also may have cooled
some ardor, as one organizer specifically warned hackers facing
potential legal showdowns that they might want to conceal their faces
from the roving eyes of cameras.
© 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
by Eric Auchard
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000728/21/net-hackers-defcon-dc