U.S. Army seeks to hire hackers
Last Updated on Wednesday, 9 April 2008 12:42 Written by Jeffreycarr Wednesday, 9 April 2008 12:42
According to Col. Wayne Parks, Director, Computer Network Operations and Electronic Warfare, Fort Leavenworth, Kan:
“The service is recruiting a younger generation of hackers, Parks said, for, as the Army puts it, “computer network attack and computer network defend.”
Here’s an extract of the article published at GOVEXEC.com:
“The United States finds itself more often fighting small, distributed terrorist and insurgent cells that are able to communicate and coordinate attacks using cell phones and that can share on Web sites lessons on the best way to attack U.S. forces. The challenge is finding weaknesses in the enemy’s computer network that can be exploited, Parks said.”
The Army will have the same challenge as the Air Force is facing. It’ll be interesting to see what accomodations they make, if any, to attract hackers to enlist.
Army
I think the aftermath of the Iraq War is going to put a decided crimp into Army recruitment for at least a generation and probably longer. That is, if the word “crimp” is really adequate.
I won’t mince words about why.
The soldiers who served in Iraq have been serially betrayed by their command authority, right up the line culminating in the Secretary of Defense and the President. The Army has taken what pains it can to suppress the details of this, but their success hasn’t exactly been total. The news stories are going to linger, on the Internet and in the recesses of public awareness, like unexploded mines, for decades.
As long as an enlisted man can be turned into an Eleven Bravo at the stroke of a pen, which is pretty much the way the Army has to be run, there aren’t many people who are going to stick their necks out after the last five years. Not if they have any choices left to them.
This is why I am afraid that we are going to be stuck with reliance upon mercenaries for the foreseeable future.
I don’t like this idea very much for a whole host of reasons. Most of these reasons were well covered by Niccolò Machiavelli almost 500 years ago. And he was in a position to observe the consequences at first hand.
If we play this smart, which I really don’t think we’re going to, we’d do well to concentrate our attention on how best to employ and control mercenary forces. This is doable. France has managed well with its mercs for the last couple of centuries. But it’s NOT something you want to back into. This is like handling a power saw: you had better watch what you’re doing or you’re liable to lose fingers. If you’re lucky.
How does this connect with an Army hacking group? Easy.
The kids who are both smart and controllable will size things up, fly straight, and try for careers as security geeks in the private sector. Nobody who is both basically sane and has more than a handful of brain cells to rub together thinks you can go from blackhat hacker into the legitimate security world any more. Not after the instructive examples of Adrian Lamo and Kevin Mitnick. To mention only two.
Bottom line is that after you have a criminal record, no employer in the private sector will touch you for information security work, or information technology work of any kind. The reasons for this reluctance are perfectly sound and grounded in matters of public record. Like the bio of Kevin Mitnick prior to his arrest.
Everybody in the information security community knows this. So does everyone who has taken a good look at it, post 1995 or so.
A good private sector pen tester is employable in both pen test and secure coding practices positions, because in order to be a really good pen tester, you need to be very fluent at coding.
Such people earn low six figure incomes without breaking a sweat or ever needing to fear being shot at as a consequence of employment.
After Iraq? They’re not going to come within a mile of the Army.