Hackers Join Homeland Security Effort

[shraby]

Jason Larsen types in a few lines of computer code to hack into the controls of a nearby chemical plant. Then he finds an online video camera inside and confirms that he has pumped up a pressure value.

"It's the challenge. It's you finding the flaws," he said when asked about his motivation. "It's you against the defenders. It comes from a deep-seeded need to find out how things work."

Larsen, 31, who wears his hair long and has braces on his teeth, is a computer hacker with a twist. His goal is not to wreak havoc, but to boost security for America's pipelines, railroads, utilities and other infrastructure, part of a project backed by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Idaho lab last month launched a new cyber security center where expert hackers such as Larsen test computing vulnerabilities. Spread across 890 square miles in a remote area of eastern Idaho, INEEL gives experts access to an entire isolated infrastructure such as the one Larsen hacked into.

(more)
<http://www.bizreport.com/news/7976>

[BlueDog2u]

1. Nice idea

Hack away, and help us to unhack the vote while you're at it!

[shraby]

2. Could it have been a cover

for real hacking?

[BlueDog2u]

4. Could be

I didn't think of that.

[EMunster]

3. nice...but I suspect that half of them are employed as freepers....

menacing places like this...