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There’s a saying that goes, “if you can’t beat them, join them”, but in the case of
today’s show we might change that to “If they’ve beaten you, hire them.”
After all, if you’ve breached a company or government’s firewalls, you might just
be the right person to stop others penetrating systems where sensitive information is stored.
It doesn’t always end with a job and a healthy-looking salary, though, and the vast majority of hackers
who were caught end up with a fine, probation, some community service or even a prison sentence.
For instance, many who have created and distributed computer viruses have ended-up behind bars.
But today we’ll look at the people whose tinkering landed them a great job, in this
episode of the Infographics Show, Hackers Who Now Work for The Government.
Jeff Moss (Dark Tangent) One of the better known hackers in the world,
this man went on to found both the DEF CON and Black Hat computer security conferences.
He’s done many things in his life relating to security, but started working for the U.S.
government during the administration of Barack Obama.
In 2009, he was sworn in to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
On its website, it says it “leverages the experience, expertise, and national and global
connections of the HSAC membership to provide the Secretary real-time, real-world, sensing
and independent advice to support decision-making across the spectrum of homeland security operations.”
In 2012, he co-chaired a task force on cyber skills to try and find the best people in
America to work for the Department of Homeland Security.
Five years later, he became the commissioner for the Global Commission on the Stability
of Cyberspace.
He also regularly holds talks around the world on the issue of cyber security.
“Hacking is sort of a skill set -- it's neutral.
You can be a criminal hacker or you can be a noncriminal hacker,” he once told CNN
in an interview.
In his early days, before he started working for the government, he said he’d do stuff
such as break into phone companies to get free calls.
He also said he liked to remove copyright protections from products.
He no longer breaks the law and is probably one of the most influential people in the
world when it comes to computer security.
Some other people we will mention were perhaps part of a darker world of hacking.
Nicholas Allegra (Comex) In 2011, Forbes ran a story on a 19-year old
who was said to be one great hacker.
His name was Nicholas Allegra, aka, Comex, and Forbes wrote that often he “sends shockwaves
through the computer security world.”
That’s because Comex would find holes in the source code of Apple’s iPhone, and tear
apart its many defenses.
Comex would release something called the JailBreakMe code that Forbes said allowed “millions
of users to strip away in seconds the ultra-strict security measures Apple has placed on its
iPhones and iPads.”
Apparently, Apple wasn’t too fond of this guy.
Well, if you they beat you, hire them, and that’s what Apple did.
It seems he didn’t work there too long, though.
It’s said he was let go by Apple after not responding to an email that would have prolonged
his employment.
Allegra then went on to work for Google.
Now, we can’t be sure he directly worked for the government, but some media sources
tell us he was offered large sums of money by various agencies to sell them his way of
basically reverse engineering the iPhone.
Even if he wasn’t on the government payroll, this just shows how hacking can land you good
jobs at some of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Peiter C. Zatko (Mudge) This man was once part of the hacker collectivist
L0pht and also a prominent member of the hacking organization Cult of the Dead Cow.
It doesn’t seem he was ever interested in the dark side of hacking and is said to be
one of the first guys to reach out to companies and government and explain to them vulnerabilities.
He soon became an important consultant and worked closely with former president Bill
Clinton.
After that, he went on to work for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
where he ran three big programs called the Military Networking Protocol, the Cyber-Insider
Threat, and the Cyber Fast Track.
In 2017 he joined the payments startup, Stripe, where he was hired as head of security.
Hackers for the FBI It’s well known that the FBI have turned
up to hacking conferences looking for talent, but according to an article in Rolling Stone
many of those people can’t land the job because of their criminal history, their tattoos
or the fact they have been known to be fond of a certain herb.
“That’s why I want a job.
So I can do it legally,” one hacker told the interviewer.
But in 2017, The Washington Post reported that the FBI had turned to hackers to help
them “crack the iPhone’s four-digit personal identification number without triggering a
security feature that would have erased all the data.”
The newspaper wrote that at least one person that was hired to do this fell into the black
hat category of hacking, a person who would sell vulnerabilities in systems back to the
people who created the systems.
We just don’t know who the hacker or hackers were, and we probably never will.
Kevin Mitnick This man is one of the world’s most renowned
hackers, and he has been severely punished for some of the things he has done.
He also has consulted for the FBI, despite spending part of his life behind bars.
At just a young age he started hacking, leading the U.S. Department of Justice to accuse him
of breaking into many networks.
He was convicted of wire fraud and computer fraud and spent five years in prison, the
majority of that in solitary confinement.
Many people accused the authorities of coming down way too hard on the young man, perhaps
making an example out of him.
But the good news is he went on to consult for many Fortune 500 companies as well as
various government agencies.
He’s also written books and has been part of many documentaries.
He once said in an interview, “I was released from custody and senators Joseph Lieberman
and Fred Thompson invited me to Congress to testify on how the federal government could
better protect their computer systems.”
The outside threats In 2018, there was a lot of talk about hackers
working for the governments of China, Russia and Iran trying to steal trade secrets from
the USA.
One newspaper wrote that Iranian hackers known as “Rocket Kitten” repeatedly try and
hack American Defense companies, while Chinese hackers go after telecom and aerospace industries.
Russian hackers apparently are busy trying to hack U.S. energy companies, not to mention
swaying American minds with content posted on social media – although that’s hardly
hacking.
Does America do the same?
Well, there were reports in 2018 saying the new administration was getting more offensive
with its cyber-security arm.
Would you sign on to work for the government if you were a hacker, or would you spend most
of your days working in informal mode a long way from the office?
The sad truth is that your personal online accounts are always vulnerable to being hacked,
which is why a strong password is vital to keeping safe online- but who can seriously
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Have you ever hacked anything?
Tell us all about it in the comments.
And as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.