Police Refer Teenaged Crackers For 'Second Chance' Jobs at Cyber-Security Company (bbc.co.uk) 69
This week the BBC reported on teenaged "hackers dragged from a world of crime to fight for the other side" at "a fairly ordinary looking cyber-security company" in southwest England. Bruce66423 shared their report:
Bluescreen employs hackers the authorities have deemed worthy of a second chance, who pit their wits against some of the anonymous online criminals they used to see as brothers in arms... Bluescreen IT has a direct link with the police to find hackers in need of direction. These are young men who have been accused of serious crimes, but instead of being taken through the criminal justice system, they've been given a second chance. About 15 people work in the Security Operations Centre, a handful of whom have been referred to the company as hackers who aren't malicious in nature and are deemed capable of reform...
There's a relaxed atmosphere when you walk into the Security Operations Centre, but it's serious work. Three monitors on the wall detail which of Bluescreen's clients are being attacked, and how serious the threat is. The clients, mostly smaller and medium-sized businesses from around the South West, are given codenames like "Black Mamba" or "Green Starfish" -- usually a colour and an animal... Bluescreen sees itself as a place to develop young people, give them a second chance, and be a haven for those with nowhere else to go. "It makes me really proud when they achieve industry-recognised qualifications," said the company's chief operating officer, Richard Cashmore.
A 16-year-old named Jack stole personal information from about 1,000 people. Years later, when he was 19, "the police sent five squad cars, a tech team and a riot van to his home.... Another employee, Cameron, was arrested on his way to school when he was just 14 years old. "Officers from the National Crime Agency had planned the sting so that Cameron would be out of the house, and unable to destroy his hard drives in the event he heard them coming."
As "apprentices" they start at £650 a month, reports the BBC, but "after five years of experience they could easily be earning close to £50,000 a year."
There's a relaxed atmosphere when you walk into the Security Operations Centre, but it's serious work. Three monitors on the wall detail which of Bluescreen's clients are being attacked, and how serious the threat is. The clients, mostly smaller and medium-sized businesses from around the South West, are given codenames like "Black Mamba" or "Green Starfish" -- usually a colour and an animal... Bluescreen sees itself as a place to develop young people, give them a second chance, and be a haven for those with nowhere else to go. "It makes me really proud when they achieve industry-recognised qualifications," said the company's chief operating officer, Richard Cashmore.
A 16-year-old named Jack stole personal information from about 1,000 people. Years later, when he was 19, "the police sent five squad cars, a tech team and a riot van to his home.... Another employee, Cameron, was arrested on his way to school when he was just 14 years old. "Officers from the National Crime Agency had planned the sting so that Cameron would be out of the house, and unable to destroy his hard drives in the event he heard them coming."
As "apprentices" they start at £650 a month, reports the BBC, but "after five years of experience they could easily be earning close to £50,000 a year."
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I was expecting such a play on words somewhere in the comments, and was not disappointed. Conga-rats on even getting the first posting with it even, for what such an achievement is worth. :)
Politically incorrect (Score:2)
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“Crackers” was black slang for white people - not a synonym for “hicks”.
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They had bullhorns back before the Reconstruction?
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Like the current crop of "security researchers" are any better.
Create a big enough bug bounty or they'll sell their exploits for bitcoints is the reality for a lot of them, or both. Hackers was a much more honest term for them, security researcher gives them a cloak of responsibility most of them don't deserve.
Re: What could possibly go wrong with this scheme (Score:2)
Why defend cheap ass companies? Their actions demonstrate clearly that they do not value security - like real dollar value, not cheap talk about value.
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You really don't get haikus
That one was the worst
Too fat, like an autumn duck
"after five years" "£50,000 a year." (Score:1)
So basically they're indentured servants, because five years of cyber security experience on top of what they already knew would make them bank on the open market.
That's how you get your slaves. Throw the book at young kids and make them work cheap for you for a decade or more.
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These were mostly kids with a lot of their future ahead of them.
Who when a kid did not do something that now, with your older/wiser head, you would not now do ? We all make mistakes, which is why society (ie the law, etc) needs to recognise that, and allow people to grow into 'good' citizens (maybe after having paid a 'price' for misdeeds done).
Re:"after five years" "£50,000 a year." (Score:4, Insightful)
So basically they're indentured servants, because five years of cyber security experience on top of what they already knew would make them bank on the open market.
That's how you get your slaves. Throw the book at young kids and make them work cheap for you for a decade or more.
That's 65k USD, which actually isn't bad considering that they probably don't have degrees and have criminal records. And they don't seem to be bound to this company, it's just one of the few companies that will hire them in a technical role given that they don't have degrees and have criminal records.
And lets face it "teenaged crackers" aren't the ones finding zero-day exploits. These were kids deploying pre-built rootkits or hacking tools, or using social engineering attacks. They need some basic technical competency, but their biggest asset is largely just a bunch of specialized knowledge.
I think my biggest issue with this is:
a) A lot of the kids didn't seem to realize they were doing something especially wrong, even though if they were enabling things like identity left that can seriously ruin people's lives. It's a hard question figuring out the appropriate punishment for stuff like that.
b) Some of them do seem pretty bright, professional experience is good and you can get a pretty good career going straight into the industry. But I suspect a lot would really benefit from a post-secondary education.
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They were juveniles when convicted. Unless the prosecutor went to the extra effort to try them as adults, those records effectively evaporte on the crackers' 18th birthdays.
I've met a number of such crackers in my career. Most are not competent enough for their probing or securing work to be reliable or even competent. Those few who are competent technically have repeatedly abused the trust of their "sponsors" when hired.
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50,000 pounds a year is a comfortable wage for young man in the UK. And it's not like *any* of them are ever going to pay for child support: the underlying reason fore the Jeremy Kyle show is that single mothers are a basic factor of UK life, and the men gain *nothing* by supporting their children. So they don't.
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It's terrible that they're just rounding up youngsters at random who haven't done anything wrong and putting them through this.
[dring dring dring dring]
Just heard, apparently that's not what's happening and you're a 'tard.
Next: Drug dealers diverted to pharma sales (Score:2)
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This is surely not the same as diverting people convicted of dealing drugs into pharma sales jobs. But why is it not the same?
Same gig, different risks. Either way you're selling drugs to people who want them but don't know why, and are largely ignorant of the risks involved. Both are generally morally bankrupt. Well, there is one difference. If someone only sells cannabis products, they're not harming anyone. At worst, they're providing false hope. Big pharma drugs actually kill people.
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Probably autistic spectrum individuals who without proper guidance can go astray in the need to feed their curiosity, it's a brain chemical thing. Hence with guidance they can safely be used, their brain chemical 'hmm' addiction not driving poorly thought out behaviour, they now have community orientated work to feed their brain the chemicals their brain produces and likes when it processes incoming data in the way it likes. They are not the script kiddie type who used some other 'er' deviants work, for cri
Re: Next: Drug dealers diverted to pharma sales (Score:3)
Most street drug dealers are too morally upright to consider a career in Big Pharma.
way under Minimum wage to start! (Score:2)
way under Minimum wage to start!
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I doubt the apprenticeship is full time. They are watching these kids like hawks for the first year while also trying to proceed with business as usual. It would be exhausting to have too many of these apprentices around 40 hours a week. I applaud their Portuguese overlords for investing in these kids for a win-win.
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Why do you assume that they are "watching these kids like hawks"? Does the FBI or most local police departments have _competence_ monitoring their informants or monitoring possibly bright children?
"Black hats become white hats" is news?? (Score:2)
Why is this even "news" ??? This has been going on for decades.
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1) These are kids who are supposedly getting a second chance.
2) It gave somebody a chance to dredge up the “hackers” versus “crackers” argument which they'd already lost last decade.
Uh... (Score:2)
1) That sounds like public private indentured servitude.
2) Hacking without actual harm to others being criminalized was a huge mistake, and it has led to weaker systems.
3) These kids are learning how the man works, and getting underpaid, so they have plenty of incentive to go out and put on a black hat...
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So? The alternative is prison. Pro tip: if you don't want to be either indentured or imprisoned, don't hack into other people computers.
So it would be OK to break into your house and rummage around while you're not there so long as I didn't actually take anything or harm anyone?
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1) That sounds like public private indentured servitude.
It's not.
2) Hacking without actual harm to others being criminalized was a huge mistake, and it has led to weaker systems.
Several of the people interviewed in the article had caused harm to others.
You also can't hack most computer systems without causing harm to others.
3) These kids are learning how the man works, and getting underpaid, so they have plenty of incentive to go out and put on a black hat...
These kids are on an easily discernable career track that will let them earn twice the average salary in five years, let alone if they then decide to start their own business or take more lucrative offers elsewhere.
That is not 'underpaid'.
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Oh, we're using that made up 'crackers' instead of 'hackers' because we think out ret-conning it to mean something else is better.
Sorry, but 'crackers' was used 20 years after the fact.
As someone who was there at the time, I can assure you that "crackers" was in use, in exaOh, we're using that made up 'crackers' instead of 'hackers' because we think out ret-conning it to mean something else is better.
Sorry, but 'crackers' was used 20 years after the fact.ctly this way, and has been continuously since. It's
Gad. that sure got scrambled. trying again (Score:2)
Oh, we're using that made up 'crackers' instead of 'hackers' because we think out ret-conning it to mean something else is better.
Sorry, but 'crackers' was used 20 years after the fact.
As someone who was there at the time, I can assure you that "crackers" was in use, in exactly this way, and has been continuously since. It's not a ret-con if was there at the time.
As near as the members of the hacker circle where I hang out have been able to determine, the misuse of hacker (exceptinoally skilled, boundary-pu
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paid penetration testing (Score:4, Funny)
From the article:
Just four years after his arrest, Jack is now working at an advanced level, carrying out processes like penetration testing
In other news, prostitutes are now screaming discrimination as another group of criminals get off and actually get paid for penetration testing.