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How an Aussie University Creates the World's Best Hackers

Posted by samzenpus on from the advanced-hacking-101 dept.

bennyboy64 writes "An Australian university appears to be excelling at cultivating some of Australia's best computer hackers. Following the University of NSW's students recently placing first, second and third in a hacking war game (the first place winners also won first place last year), The Sydney Morning Herald reports on what exactly about the NSW institution is breeding some of Australia's best hackers. It finds that a lecturer and mentor to the students with controversial views on responsible disclosure appears to the be the reason for their success."

2 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. GCHQ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or maybe it's because the curriculum is designed so that Defence Signals Directorate (the Aussie equivalent of GCHQ/NSA) can go there and have a one-stop shop for their new recruits...

  2. Part of it is that they've been at it for a long . by Coeurderoy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Part of it is that they've been at it for a long time... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions'_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code Lions was at the UNSW, getting student to have access to code seems to be a tradition there. I also met a couple of very talented people who got their degrees there in the late 70's early 80's and worked with some of them... It just shows that the right way to run an university is not to worry too much about the curriculum and do the unexpected, even the vaguely illegal. BTW it seems the equivalent document he wrote about the pdp11 unix C compiler is not avaiable, it's sad it was very interesting.