Defense Expert: Hire Hackers and Wage War

Phoghat writes "A top defense and cybersecurity expert says the U.S. should stop trying to take aim at expert hackers and start doing a better job of recruiting them. 'Let's just say that in some places you find guys with body piercings and nonregulation haircuts,' says U.S. Naval Postgraduate School professor John Arquilla . 'But most of these sorts of guys can't be vetted in the traditional way. We need a new institutional culture that allows us to reach out to them.'"

Comments

This is nonsense.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of the most talented technical people I know are also the most clean-cut and athletic. Some of the worst, show-offs who know the talk but little else, fall into your usual hacker stereotype with their appearance. I think the former is more realistic, and the latter is more romantic fantasy— brought on by people who idealize Gibson. In other words, why bother? The first group is more likely to give you a well-rounded individual who actually knows her material. The second group is a total crapshoot.

Re:If this is about cyberwar,

[tenco]

If you hand out bigger "guns" and the internet becomes a warzone, everyone loses. The only way to keep it civilized is by handing out better "armor", making "guns" as ineffectual as possible. Since the military isn't interested in armor only and i don't trust them to use "guns" in a reasonable way (if there actually is one) i don't know why i should put me under their command.