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Why So Many Top Hackers Come From Russia (krebsonsecurity.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader tsu doh nimh writes:
Brian Krebs has an interesting piece this week on one reason that so many talented hackers (malicious and benign) seem to come from Russia and the former Soviet States: It's the education, stupid. Krebs's report doesn't look at the socioeconomic reasons, but instead compares how the U.S. and Russia educate students from K-12 in subjects which lend themselves to a mastery in coding and computers -- most notably computer science. The story shows that the Russians have for the past 30 years been teaching kids about computer science and then testing them on it starting in elementary school and through high school. The piece also looks at how kids in the U.S. vs. Russia are tested on what they are supposed to have learned.
Fossbytes also reports that Russia claimed the top spot in this year's Computer Programming Olympics -- their fourth win in six years -- adding that "the top 9 positions out of 14 were occupied by Russian or Chinese schools." The only two U.S. schools in the top 20 were the University of Central Florida (#13) and MIT (#20).
Fossbytes also reports that Russia claimed the top spot in this year's Computer Programming Olympics -- their fourth win in six years -- adding that "the top 9 positions out of 14 were occupied by Russian or Chinese schools." The only two U.S. schools in the top 20 were the University of Central Florida (#13) and MIT (#20).
Maybe the Russians aren't wasting time trying to figure out what bathroom a student should be allowed to use or letting some precious snowflake change the language because he doesn't like to be called "he"?
Maybe the Russians tell the violent kids they're fucking violent and kick their asses out of school, and don't care how it might correlate with racial statistics?
Maybe the Russians have an education system that isn't run by a union intent on playing politics with every damn thing?
This aricle is about the education system in Russia, not Capitalism vs (failed) Communism. Also, don't you realize that you Amerikanos have Google due to Russia/Soviet Union?
Has been going on for a little more than 30 years. How many "person on the street" interviews have you seen where young adults, heck, even some older adults Can't find their own state on a map, can't tell you who the president is, can't tell you which side won the civil war and on and on. Is it any wonder the government (both R&D's) have been able to strip away rights, bloat the government, encroach on your every waking minute?
You sir nailed it on the head.
In the USA we coddle the idiots and the stupids. WE tell them they are special and make sure hard things are not hard for them.
Elsewhere the coddling does not happen, they create TV shows that support intellect and thought... instead of the US Where We have basically "ow my balls" , "dancing with ow my balls", and "thinking is hard news channel"
This is the difference. you treat a populace as if they are highbrow they get embarrassed if they dont understand and aspire to learn. If you cater to the lowest common then you get everyone degenerated to that.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It is true that Russia places a much greater emphasis on teaching math, physics, and CS than the West. However, it is only possible because of Russian culture puts more value on knowledge of those subjects. Their knowledge means both more social prestige and better prospect of finding a well-paid job.
BTW, many Russians tend to preserve this attitude to math even when they emigrate to the US. As result, their children do better in math on average than American kids. For example, Sergey Brin has never attended any education institution in the Soviet Union, but he was successful in math and CS. Similar, many Asian kids do well in math, because of their parents.
Anyway, Russia has a large pool of young well-educated people, but Russia does not develop as much software as it could given human resources that it has. As result many young people cannot find a legal well-paid job, and some of them get attracted to the dark economy. Usually Russian authorities will not go after them as long as they choose their targets abroad.
This is the difference. you treat a populace as if they are highbrow they get embarrassed if they dont understand and aspire to learn.
This may well be a factor. In the US, few people seem to be ashamed of being ignorant.
Just last week I mentioned to someone that I'd like to visit Malta again, and he said "Where's that? Africa?". It's not that he didn't know, but that he had no embarrassment or shame whatsoever. If I didn't know where a country was, I would have looked it up before opening my mouth, or at the very least have apologized for my ignorance instead of flaunting it.
Before Internet took off, most people also had an encyclopedia in the bookshelf; even if they couldn't afford Encyclopaedia Britannica, at least a small one. Except Americans, who at most would have a Scrabble dictionary. This perplexed me - didn't people want to find out things? It took me a while to accept that no, in general, they don't, and they were not the least bit ashamed of that either.
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'the US Where We have basically "ow my balls" '
Have you ever seen Japanese game shows? Half are basically "Ow My Balls" with a hyperactive announcer and scrolling text on all four edges of the screen. The other half are basically "Ow YOUR Balls".
'"dancing with ow my balls"'
See Eurovision, which is basically "Dancing with Ow My Balls" with bribery.
As a former-soviet-state citizen, I think it's because of "deficit". A very well known word for soviet people. You couldn't get anything. Food, clothes, household items. Everything was in deficit. And it came in batches, so you needed to go on hunting trips around town to find some new item in a shop. So naturally, computers were a deficit when I grew up (20-30 years ago). You didn't go to a shop to buy new one. You got an old one from an institution and made do. You got bits and pieces and hacked something together. Software: obviously piracy. Who pays for software!? With piracy comes lots of little hacks and cracks, you get to know and learn the systems. You don't have a support line which caters everything on a silver platter. I don't know. It just feels like this hacking and cracking mentality is coming from that.
Indeed. Look at all the great hackers and coders from the demo scene in Finland and Scandinavian countries.
I think most cracked games I saw from the C64 and Amiga era were from groups in those countries.
I specifically said that it was not the ignorance that threw me, but his flaunting it.
You have quite the chip on your shoulder. Nothing in your description shows he was flaunting his ignorance. He was seeking knowledge by asking where your vacation location was. It shows interest in gaining knowledge, instead of the alternative of continuing to be ignorant about a small self-governing set of islands in the Mediterranean. It also shows the maturity to ask someone for help instead of thinking it shows weakness.
Not knowing where neighboring Algeria, Libya, or Italy might cause some embarrassment, but not knowing about a 450k population country? I would be as embarrassed as if I couldn't identify where Matola, Londrina, Gdansk, Yamoussoukro, or Adygeja are, which are all cities with a greater population than Malta. Do you also criticize someone not knowing where the Stapedius is, or not knowing what the 409 HTTP Response Code is?
You need to grow up. Knowing the names and locations of all 196 countries is closer to obscure trivia than something you should expect everyone to know.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke