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Hackers wanted: Government recruiting cyber attack experts

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Attention, amateur hackers: Uncle Sam wants you to help fight cyber-crime — and he’s getting pretty desperate, too. As cyber-attacks become more complex and virulent, the U.S. government has poured billions of dollars into securing our nation’s digital borders. Problem is, it’s facing a severe shortage of manpower. Out of the roughly 20,000 “elite” cyber-experts that the U.S. needs, there are only about 1,000 currently fighting the good fight. Faced with this dearth of expertise, and with a national training program that’s proven to be flawed, governmental agencies and private companies alike have broadened their recruitment wingspan in an effort to dig out whiz-kid diamonds in the rough.

One of the people spearheading this revamped recruitment initiative is Alan Paller, co-founder and research director of the Sans Institute cyber-security school, and who, according to Newsweek, is “kind of a real-life version of Professor Charles Xavier.” Paller’s already devoted 20 years to training cyber-crime fighters at Sans, and has recently come up with a particularly unique way of finding talent.

Full story: ‘American Idol’ for Hackers: The U.S. Government’s Latest Recruitment Strategy via Switched