The Air Force is looking for a few good hackers

[unhappycamper]

Computers are battlefield for AFIT students
By Scott Fontaine - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jun 6, 2010 18:19:00 EDT

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — It’s a scenario used to train the Air Force’s growing corps of cyber warriors: A hacker infiltrates the central hub of an electrical grid, taking control of the power flowing through a city. Warning lights flash and Air Force computer technicians scramble into action.

It turns out the hacker didn’t do any damage this time, but the airmen still had to respond because the perceived disaster could have been the start of a multipronged assault to bring down the U.S.

In theory, such a takeover of an electrical grid’s computer systems could force an overload and a cascading failure.

“This isn’t just theory stuff,” said Brig. Gen. Walter Givhan, commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology, the service’s graduate school of engineering and management. “They’re learning offensive stuff. They’re learning defensive stuff. This is real time.”

At AFIT’s Center for Cyberspace Research, service members and civilians learn how to strengthen defensive systems, infiltrate networks and monitor the flow of data, according to Rick Raines, a professor of electrical engineering and the center’s director. All students must be U.S. citizens for security reasons, though other AFIT programs are open to citizens of allied nations.



unhappycamper comment: They own the economy. They own the most deadly military force in the world. And now they own the data. They will also own you.

[Heidi]

1. Recommended.

:kick: