IT securityCompanies hiring hackers to harden defenses
To burglar-proof your home, it is best hire a burglar as a consultant, as he is more likely to find the security vulnerabilities and demonstrate how they can be exploited; following this approach, companies large and small are now hiring hackers to test the companies’ security system vulnerabilities and find ways to harden these systems to withstand intrusion
Some hackers have taken off their masks // Source: trendingcore.com
To burglar-proof your home, it is best hire a burglar as a consultant, as he is more likely to find the security vulnerabilities and demonstrate how they can be exploited.
Following this approach, companies large and small are now hiring hackers to test the companies’ security system vulnerabilities and find ways to harden these systems to withstand intrusion. The Los Angeles Times reports that Boeing has hired two young hackers to find ways to break into the company’s computer system, and remove those vulnerabilities. Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, has a clear need to ward of hacker attempts and protect “some of the nation’s most important intellectual property.”
The two young engineers, Jarrad Sims and Tin Tam, are working side-by-side, developing, revising, and analyzing security systems, then spending much of their time trying to “crack” these systems.
Part of the problem they face is that employees frequently need to use the Internet to do their jobs, and Internet access provides the portal that hackers need to enter into a company’s network
The threat to consumers is well-known, with oft-reported cases of large companies’ databases of credit card information being broken into, but it is not just the large companies which are at risk.
Even small companies are vulnerable to information theft, perhaps even more so since they generally lack the resources available to the large corporation for cybersecurity staff.
Visa recently announced that 95 percent of credit card thefts originate at small businesses. All these target companies are liable for losses suffered as a result of the released credit information.
DHS is hiring hackers to break into game consoles like the X-Box and PS3. The department recently awarded a $177,235.50 contract to San Franciso-based Obscure Technologies, a small firm of some half-dozen employees, to develop “hardware and software tools that can be used for extracting data from video game systems.” In other words, the federal government is seeking the ability to hack into an individual game console.
Their reasoning is that the communications systems used in these consoles are heavily encrypted, and these systems are being used by pedophiles and terrorists for communication purposes., according to rt.com.
