On Fed Payroll, Hackers Seek to Save America

[RedEarth]

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (Reuters) - Jason Larsen types in a few lines of computer code to hack into the controls of a nearby chemical plant. Then he finds an online video camera inside and confirms that he has pumped up a pressure value.


"It's the challenge. It's you finding the flaws," he said when asked about his motivation. "It's you against the defenders. It comes from a deep-seeded need to find out how things work."


Larsen, 31, who wears his hear long and has braces on his teeth, is a computer hacker with a twist. His goal is not to wreak havoc, but to boost security for America's pipelines, railroads, utilities and other infrastructure, part of a project backed by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.


Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (news - web sites), the Idaho lab last month launched a new cyber security center where expert hackers such as Larsen test computing vulnerabilities. Spread across 890 square miles in a remote area of eastern Idaho, INEEL gives experts access to an entire isolated infrastructure such as the one Larsen hacked into.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/20040914/tc_nm/security_usa_cyber_dc