[117126] in Cypherpunks
Federal agency recruits hacker teens
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Zombie Cow)
Thu Aug 26 21:42:55 1999
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 01:46:58 +0300 (EEST)
From: Zombie Cow <waste@zor.hut.fi>
To: eurohack@bofh.kyrnet.kg
cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
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Reply-To: Zombie Cow <waste@zor.hut.fi>
http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9908/26/t_t/teen.hacker/index.html
Federal agency recruits hacker teens
August 26, 1999
Web posted at: 11:21 a.m. EDT (1521 GMT)
FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (CNN) --
What image comes to mind when you
hear the word hacker?
If it's someone evil or malicious,
somebody breaking into computers
illegally, you're only partly right.
For instance, Mike Hudack is your
typical teenager. He hangs out with
friends, loves pizza and argues with his
parents that he really is old enough to
drive.
So why would the National Security
Agency be interested in him? Because
this 16-year-old is a computer whiz, a
hacker.
"Not every hacker, not everyone who calls themselves a
hacker, is a bad person," Mike says. "Most hackers are
not malicious. They are good people."
Mike was 12 years old when he bought his first
computer.
"And I took it home, and I loved it so much," Mike
says. "One of the first things I did with it is I took
it apart and then put it back together."
He even set up his own hacker news Web site, offering
security advice to government agencies. That is how he
got the NSA's attention.
"They visited my site every day and I
e-mailed them, they e-mailed me back,
telling me about their recruitment
program," Mike says.
The NSA says it recruits students like
Mike and will pay four years of college
tuition, room and board and even a salary.
In exchange, students work summers
and at least five years after college for
the NSA.
It's tempting for someone like Mike who baby-sits
every day after school and during the summer to make a
buck.
But he wonders if he can work for the NSA, given that
he disagrees with some its policies.
"I would have to think long and hard before I did it,"
Mike says.
