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Pentagon Seeks a New Generation of Hackers
Hugh Pickens writes "Forbes reports on a new military-funded program aimed at leveraging an untapped resource: the population of geeky high school and college students in the US. The Cyber Challenge will create three new national competitions for high school and college students intended to foster a young generation of cybersecurity researchers. 'The contests will test skills applicable to both government and private industry: attacking and defending digital targets, stealing data, and tracing how others have stolen it. [...] The Department of Defense's Cyber Crime Center will expand its Digital Forensics Challenge, a program it has run since 2006, to include high school and college participants, tasking them with problems like tracing digital intrusions and reconstructing incomplete data sources. In the most controversial move, the SANS Institute, an independent organization, plans to organize the Network Attack Competition, which challenges students to find and exploit vulnerabilities in software, compromise enemy systems and steal data. Talented entrants may be recruited for cyber training camps planned for summer 2010, nonprofit camps run by the military and funded in part by private companies, or internships at agencies including the National Security Agency, the Department of Energy or Carnegie Mellon's Computer Emergency Response Team.'"
Not sure how long ago you tried to do this, but there are a number of colleges (Bachelors and post-grad) that offer solid Infosec programs now (disclaimer, there are just as many that offer crappy Infosec programs). In-depth training and certification is available for most major/widely-deployed Infosec products, such as Snort (http://www.sourcefire.com/services/education). Also, there are professional training organizations (e.g. SANS) that offer excellent [mostly] vendor-neutral Infosec training. Infosec as an actual field is fairly young, so it's not surprising that there isn't an Infosec program at every college in the country, but there are numerous high-quality training options available.
Things like this can be taught by books or professors.
You start off with ground work on information security, networking, and penetration testing. You learn how things are being protected, how known flaws were exploited in the past, and what traces were left behind.
It's the same steps as being a programmer. The great ones love it, understand it, and spend their free time doing it. The average ones just tread where the great ones have gone before.
The purpose of the polygraph isn't to find out if you are lily-white. It is largely to determine if you can be blackmailed. If you are truthful about your "indiscretions", you can't be blackmailed. On the other hand, someone who is willing to lie on a polygraph clearly has some shame issues that could be exploited by a hostile agent. Obviously, admitting to a felony or intent to subvert the government isn't going to get you anywhere.
Cynicism, like dogmatism, can be an excuse for intellectual laziness. - Susan Shirk