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."

Comments

HELP WANTED.....

[canning]

National Bank of India needs young but experienced bank robbers to work as security guards. You will be required to transport and protect large sums of currency as well as securing the premises during night hours. Firearm and uniform provided. Only the most shifty of applicants will be considered. Apply in person.

Brillian script kiddies?

[Shotgun]

"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.