Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Gearing Up for Cyberwarfare: Pentagon Contractors Seeks Black Hat Hackers

June 19, 2012

Forbes posted a story last Friday (thanks to Dave Ries for forwarding it) that pretty much confirmed two suspicions that many of us have had:

  1. The U.S. is looking for cyberwarriors; and
  2. We've got a small nucleus of good ones, but need to field a much bigger team.

Read the article closely and you'll see an emerging pattern, part of which is "cloaking" the true nature of the jobs under the generic "cybersecurity" heading – until you read the job descriptions where the offensive nature of the skills is articulated. When you want applicants to develop exploit code, you're not seeking a white hat hacker. Moreover, the defense contractors aren't talking when called.

In the old days, it was easy to spot a military build-up. Not so easy when the troops are cyberwarriors spread amongst many contractors and government agencies.

There's a movie script here for sure. And no happy endings.