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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).
To be fair, I suspect that if you did this (i.e. conducted an experiment that polled random people on the street about such topics) you'd find that the overwhelming majority could answer perfectly fine. If however, you're running an entertainment program or a news show (which is kind of an entertainment program now-a-days anyhow) you probably toss out all of the correct results and only show the clips from the people who get it wrong or act like complete duffusses for the camera. If you only actively highlight the stupidest people you can find, of course things seem worse than they are.
I'm not terribly worried about poor schooling as IQ scores have been trending upwards over the past century since we started measuring intelligence. People will succeed and figure things out despite shortcomings in the educational system, just like people largely manage to overcome shitty or sub-optimal parenting and turn out to be decent. People tend to look back at the old days through a rose colored lens and focus on the good without looking at the bad. Somewhat recently I was talking with a relation of mine who recounted his years in high school and how much of a joke it was as one of the teachers was a drunk and taught them next to nothing and another would pass anyone on an athletic team no matter how poorly they did.
If today's world seems so horrible it's only because we have access to news media from all around the world. I can spend all day reading about bad things happening from half way around the world, whereas 30 years ago that was practically impossible even for government intelligence agencies. Once again, if you only put the worst on display, it leads one to make incorrect assumptions. Things in general are getting so much better, maybe not as quickly as everyone would like, but the trend line is moving in a positive direction overall.
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
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.
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