INNOVATION
Basement Innovators
One man’s hacker is another man’s dream employee
By Zachary Fillingham
Illustration: Blair Kelly
Most people operate under the assumption that all hackers are possessed
– they want to crash Wall Street and bring down the government. The
truth is that most hackers, from the illegal “black hats” to the legit “white
hats,” are primarily motivated by curiosity. They want to knock down
complex security barriers just to see if it’s possible. Ironically enough,
these skills are highly valued in the workplace, and companies the world
over are on a never-ending hunt to recruit employees who are able to
pounce on problems and rip them to shreds.
Perhaps this is why so many hackers eventually trade in their black hat
for a white one. Whether it’s Kevin Mitnick or Canada’s “Mafiaboy,” there
are plenty of examples of hackers coming out of the shadows to become
highly paid Internet security consultants or even penning books about their
exploits. After all, the only difference between black and white hacking is
whether or not the hacker decides to stick it to the man after finding some
kind of vulnerability. In the end, getting paid big bucks to do what you love
sounds a lot better than going to prison for computer fraud – a rap that
would register fairly low on the intimidation scale for other prisoners.
So, here it is! How to become a white collar hacker:
Learn to program, using computer languages
(Java, Python, C, LISP, and more).
Learn to use an Open-Source Unix, the operating system
of the Internet (Linux, OpenSolaris and others).
Learn HTML, the crux of World Wide Web coding.
These are the basics, and only the basics. You can learn independently,
or you can use your educational opportunities to assist. Take computer
courses, maths and sciences in high school, and open up options in
post-secondary related to computers. Coding, programming, software
engineering – there are tons of relevant options. Hack yourself silly.
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Five Black-Hat Hacker Attacks
2000 – 15-year-old Mafiaboy causes the websites for CNN, Yahoo, Amazon,
eBay and Dell to crash, costing the companies a combined $1 billion.
2003 – Networks at Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Laboratories and
NASA are compromised in a coordinated attack against American computers
codenamed Titan Rain.
2006 – Max Vision (aka Iceman) hacks into an underground marketplace for
stolen ID and credit card information. He is eventually caught and charged with
stealing two million credit cards.
2009 – The Conficker worm drives security analysts insane as it tears through
the Internet. At its peak, it infects as many as 15 million computers around the
world. The coders behind Conficker remain unknown.
2009 – A denial-of-service attack knocks out Twitter and causes Facebook to
move in slow motion, leaving people the world over unable to let their friends
know that they’re hungover or that they hate raisins.
Check it Out:
George Stromboulopoulos interviewed Michael Calce (aka Mafiaboy)
on CBC’s The Hour in October 2008. Check out the video on YouTube.
There is an annual contest called Pwn2Own in which white-hat hackers
compete to find vulnerabilities in browsers and mobile phone software.
For more details, check out the CanSecWest conference in BC.
A network support technician can make anywhere from $35-48k a year
CSIS – Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada’s version of the
FBI. They’re always looking for new recruits – before you even consider
applying, you have to be a Canadian citizen and meet Top Secret
security clearance requirements. Yeah, you could be the next Canadian
Bond. James Bond. www.csis.gc.ca