Slashdot Mirror
India Enlists Teen "Hackers" as Cyber Cops
Popocatepetl writes "Apparently, you can get a job if you tell Indian government officials you can "hack" a government web site. This story is short on details, but may be interesting nonetheless, especially since the FBI is mentioned."
"They told me within 5 min. they could hack the govt. web page" ==from the article. Just because they say they can do it, does not mean they can.
How Jaded Are You?
"They are brilliant. They told me that within five minutes they can hack the (Indian) defense ministry Web site...," he said.
Hummmm let's think about this one. How brilliant can someone be who would easily and openly admit to such a thing?
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"We want to use them positively so that they can create adequate firewalls so that nobody can hack our country's Web sites," he added.
/."
Okay somebody answer me this: using hackers to catch/thwart hackers sounds good, but is it really feasible? What's to say that little Wali, age 14, who built your firewall, won't share those techniques with, oh, say some kid in Minnesota who happens to post regularly to places like Slashdot, and so now your custom defense can be cracked by k1dd13s? Do they sign a NDA or something?
"I'm not a bitch, I just play one on
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
I sincerely doubt a government is dumb enough to hire a hacker to put up a firewall which he would be extremely interested in taking down.
Given a reasonably level playing field, who would win a fight between a bear and a shark?
d33R 1nD14nz:
1 c4N h4x0r 4nD cR4x0r 4 r33l. n0w G1v3 m3 4 j0b!
v4xg33k
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Cracking and defacing web sites may be exciting and a thrill to youngsters, but how many of them are really to have the patience to do a serious security audit? That is (should be) lot of paper work, and boring checklists.
In Murphy We Turst
yes, and thats exactly the reason. The Shiv Ling depicted in consummate union with the Yoni ( vulva ) of Shakti (power), is representative of the most wonderful and miraculous feature of life itself. What distinguishes life from non-life, after all? Above all else, the ability to reproduce its own kind. If indians are to revere the concept that life itself is sacred- which even the Christians claim to believe- why is the most characteristic feature of life, the act of progenition, any less sacred? It is not only sex that I'm talking about here. It is the consummation of the vast and different energies of the male and female universal prerogative, of which the Shiv Ling in union is a symbol- celebrating the fact that humankind has two sexes, each with its unique attributes and qualities, and when they come together, they produce a synergy, they create MORE life, they become more than the sum of their individual parts. Many ancient civilisations recognized the wonder of this concept- including the Chinese, who represent it somewhat more abstractly in the symbol of Yin and Yang. It is a tribute to these ancient and wise people that they were able to perceive true miracles, true wonderment, in the very features of life which surround us in our everyday existence. They did not need to have some man walk upon water to see a miracle, nor see crippled people cured instantaneously- or, worse yet, read about it in some book and call their blind adherence to such beliefs "faith".
"They are brilliant. They told me that within five minutes they can hack the (Indian) defense ministry Web site...," he said.
Crack a server in five minutes. This doesn't sound like brilliance. It sounds like some script kiddies attacking servers deployed with default security settings.
Seriously folks, outside of Hollywood movies, cracking takes a lot of time and effort, except when it's packaged up and distributed to the script kiddies. Learning to use the scripts does take a minimal amount of intelligence, but the main investment is time to hang in the right usenet forum or chat room to search the scripts out. Grokking of networking dynamics or basic algorithms are not required to use the scripts. Once the script parameters have been memorized, using it is trivial; however, the change anything that breaks the script and the kiddies are SOL.
For instance, I have a nephew who considers himself 3733t due to his ability to crack copy protection on CD games using scripts he's found on the net. The dunderhead can't even count in binary and is totally baffled when presented with hex. I ask you, where is the brilliance? He doesn't create or understand anything. He just blindly copies what someone else has told him to do.
Even people that understand aspects of networking and the vulnerabilities of various OS' are not necessarily smart. Knowledge does not equal intelligence, though there is a strong correlation. I'm not saying these kids are dumb. I'm saying that 'brilliant' should be reserved for someone who can analyze a system and design an effective attack. The sort of analysis that take hours, days or weeks. The term does not apply to someone who can run a script, which is what the kids are relying on if they can be so cavalier in their claims.
Noting that, the Indian authorities still appear to be smarter than their American counterparts. Even if these kids are dumb as bricks, they have knowledge that is beneficial for law enforcement. Recruiting their help is very wise.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba