India Internet News

02 August 2011

The National Security Agency (NSA) has a challenge for hackers that consider themselves as the hot stuff: show it by working on the "hardest problems on Earth."

Hacker skills are in high demand in the US government to fight against cyber wars that place an increasing national security threat, and are in short supply. For this reason an alphabet soup of federal agencies such as DOD, DHS, NASA, NSA are depending on Las Vegas this week for Defcon, an annual hacker conference where the entrance fee is $150 cash only without any registration, credit cards, names being considered. Attendance is expected to reach 10,000.

The NSA is one of the great pretenders. The spy agency plays both offensive and defensive in the cyber wars. It organizes electronic eavesdropping on opponents and protects American computer networks that retain super secret documents - a price target for America's enemies. The technical director of the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, cyber-defense part of the agency, Richard "Dickie" George said "Today it's cyber warriors that we're looking for, not rocket scientists. That's the race that we're in today. And we need the best and brightest to be ready to take on this cyber warrior status."

The NSA is recruiting around 1,500 people by the end of September 30 and another 1,500 next year, most of them computer experts. With a strength of only above 30,000, the Fort Meade, Maryland-based NSA dwarfs other intelligence agencies, along with the CIA. It also involved in cyber-spying and other offensive works, which it rarely, if ever, discusses publicly. But at Defcon, the NSA and other "Feds" will compete with companies looking for hacking talent too.

The NSA requires cyber security specialists to harden networks, safeguard the updates, do "penetration testing" to look security flaws and monitor for any signs of cyber attacks. The NSA is expanding its fold of hackers, but George said there is a shortage of these skills. "We are straining to hire the people that we need."

According to George the NSA is basically an environment where the hacker mentality fits right in to work with "a critical mass of people that are just like them." And what about culture fission? He said, "When I walk down the hall there are people that I see every day and I never know what color their hair's going to be. And it's a bonus if they're wearing shoes. We've been in some sense a collection of geeks for a long, long time."

The agency is well-known for its splendid, but sometimes strange, mathematicians and linguists. Jeff Moss, a hacker called as Dark Tangent, is familiar with something related to joining the two worlds. He established Defcon and the companion Black Hat conference for security professionals and is now a part of the Department of Homeland Security's Advisory Council, that guides the government about cyber security.

Jeff Moss said in a statement, "They need people with the hacker skill set, hacker mind-set. It's not like you go to a hacker university and get blessed with a badge that says you're a hacker. It's a self-appointed label -- you think like one or you don't." He shown the difference between hackers with skills and computer criminals. About the latter, he thinks "It would not be good to let them in your front door."

Moss is concerned about young hackers that may cross the lines and eventually break the laws that were not there when he got his first computer in the early 1980s. He suggests, "You can absolutely learn the same skills without breaking any law." While the computer systems of US intelligence agencies are considered to be relatively safe, a wind of recent cyber attacks has hit the Pentagon, major defense contractors and others such as the International Monetary Fund.

The NSA's missions involves supporting the Homeland Security department safe civilian US government networks. One government over-concerned barrier that may hamper recruiting top-flight experts is the security clearance process that can take six months, until then a candidate may have found another job. For the NSA, prospective employees must pass a lie-detector test, be drug-free for one year and pass through an extensive background check.

In contrast to the threat of nuclear weapons where it is confirmed which countries have this capability, cyber attacks can come from anywhere. George said, "So we need to worry about everybody. In fact we need to worry about significant adversaries hiding among the ankle biters." According to him, it is similar to find a needle in a bunch of needles, too difficult compared to a haystack.

In this continuous pings from teenagers simply fooling around, "the real bad guy can hide in that noise. That's a big problem for us, trying to identify the real threat from among all the stuff that's not really threatening." He didn't named countries that generates big threats but other intellects have shown their concerned with China's increasing cyber-warfare powers, and also Russia's.

George claims that the NSA might draw hackers to operate in its cloistered walls by impressing them with the latest technology, attracting their competitive nature, and providing them with work sense for the greater good. "We have a wonderful atmosphere, we have great people and we have the hardest problems on Earth. And we need help, the country needs help." However there is a huge difference in winning bragging rights in public competitions against inside the NSA enclosure.

George states, "You're not going to make yourself famous working here, that's the downside. You can be internally famous, but you can't be externally famous." Even the secret nature of NSA provides a positive side-effect to balance a work-life. "If you come here you really can't take work home with you. That's a bonus."