America's NSA Challenges Students With A Codebreaking Competition, Then Recruits Them

This year America's National Security Agency (NSA) is once again "developing a cyber challenge and daring more than 330 schools and 2,600 students to solve it," writes Federal News Network.

Slashdot reader eatvegetables shares their report: Kathy Hutson, the senior strategist for industry and academic engagement at the NSA, said the Codebreaker Challenge has become one of the best ways to attract the next generation of talent to the federal government... NSA launched the Codebreaker Challenge in 2013 as a way to further connect with students and professors, who are focused on technology and cyber issues. Over the last six years, the annual initiative has become a much-anticipated challenge with professors making it a part of their classes and students testing their mettle against NSA's cyber experts...

The initiative provides students, professors and anyone else who is interested "with a hands-on opportunity to develop their reverse-engineering /low-level code analysis skills while working on a realistic problem set centered around the NSA's mission," said Eric Bryant, a technical director in the crypto analysis organization at the NSA. The 2018 challenge focused on ransomware and blockchain, requiring participants to solve eight separate, but related challenges... Bryant said a group of NSA cyber experts develop the challenge each year on top of their regular duties. He said they try to focus on areas that are either up-and-coming or current cyber threats and attack vectors. For the 2019 Codebreaker Challenge, Bryant said it likely will focus on mobile security threats, probably using an Android operating system...

Bryant said he reaches out to all of the students who solve the challenge and NSA sends them letters of recognition and a memento for participating. "We reach out to these students to figure out what year they are in, how could they come here to do internships or hire them full-time, so we are definitely on that from a hiring and recruitment perspective," Hutson said. The NSA keeps a leaderboard ranking the participating colleges. (Last year Oregon State had over 100 students participating.)

The 2018 challenge is still online, Bryant says, "and there are people who are working and submitting solutions."

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have links to everything the NSA knows, and you sure as fuck can't even bother to research the topic even generally, so I guess you'll never know actual shit.

I'm ok with that. You know nothing. Huawei's backdooring of the African Union went on for 5 years. It wasn't a mistake. You're a moron.

I'm anti-moron btw. I imply that means you are stupid and don't know anything real about this, are lazy. So first and foremost, learn to read.

Huawei is a known-bad actor for over a decade, you're a moron.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

And let me add... Huawei being known-bad and a tentacle of the Chi-Com party DIRECTLY, none of that is a "defense" of nor directly impacts questions/concerns/oversight of the NSA. They're not unrelated, but it's close.

The NSA isn't "making up" things about Huawei nor are they the ones worldwide publishing the details about how Chinese telecom companies facilitate spying and data theft for Beijing, a cabalist pseudo-state.

If you prefer dogmeat and a Chinese prison death, by all means, go fucking die there yo

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

"He was shocked when I told him he was a piece of shit and to get out of my country."

What you didn't accuse him of being a spy and execute him on the spot! Something his own people wouldn't have thought twice about. So much for patriotism and he's right, they're going to wup us with our current generation of wimps.

Re:

[mcswell]

You know this how?

And they find students who want to work for them?

[Anonymous Coward]

The way I see it, the question isn't, why should you work for the NSA. The question is, why shouldn't you? [youtube.com]

Salary level?

[swilver]

Before people waste their time on this, how many figures are you going to pay so people know it will be worth their while? It's not like working for the NSA brings it own rewards.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Agree completely. If I am going to sell my soul to an institution that routinely abuses its authority and irresponsibly weaponizes vulnerabilities rather than discloses them, and THEN allows those weapons to fall into the hands of (other) criminals....

I at least want to know how much my soul is worth.

Google served up a doc from 2014 that said the average salary was a mere $80,000 (I say "mere" given that the desired skills can command more than that in the public sector), with promises that those who also

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: Salary level?

[astrofurter]

"Now does working for $80k sound so horrible?"

Sounds awesome... if you enjoy sharing a 1 bedroom apartment with a roommate.

Re:

[Whorhay]

The pay system changed back in the 1980's and is no longer such a sweat heart deal. Under the newer system each year of work earns 1% towards retirement pay. So if you do 10 years you get 10% of your average of high three year salary, starting at 59 or whatever age you qualify for retirement. If you wait to a slightly later retirement age you can get 1.1% per year of service. Under the old system 20 years got your 50%, however you weren't "allowed" to contribute to Social Security, so the pension would be t

So, who would you rather sell your soul to?

[zkiwi34]

Microsoft? Facebook? Apple? IBM? Oracle? Cisco? Amazon?
Who aren't you selling your soul to these days?

Re:

[fustakrakich]

I'm sure they will get an *offer they can't refuse*

Re:

[Aighearach]

No, but that is what happens in many of the countries the NSA spies on.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

Yeah, can't happen here...

Re:

[Aighearach]

Exactly, you move the goalposts from being sure it does happen, to saying that you can't disprove the possibility. Well, duh, you can only prove things that do happen, not things that don't happen.

You're just a hater who lacks awareness of what their own words mean. You don't check if something is true before you say it, you only check if it matches up with your hatred.

Re:

[Aighearach]

5. 5 figures. It is not big enough to measure in digits, you'd need to look at the actual pay rate for the exact job offered.

You will make less than experts in fake uniforms.

But more than you'd make for winning the videogame and getting recruited to be The Last Starfighter.

FYI: Salary levels as advertised

[eatvegetables]

From: https://apply.intelligencecare... [intelligencecareers.gov]

Took a look to see rates being advertised under âoecyberâ. Donâ(TM)t know private market rates for similar qualifications, so canâ(TM)t make judgement on offered pay. Perhaps, someone with relevant knowledge could offer insight.

Salary Range: $70,519 - $87,868 (Entry/Developmental)

Salary Range: $81,571 - $108,643 (Full Performance)

Salary Range: $99,172 - $152,352 (Senior)

Salary Range: $137,849 - $166,500 (Expert)

Re:

[ayesnymous]

Sure it does. You can make a killing with insider trading and no one will ever know.

Re:

[gurps_npc]

Swilver, you are foolish. Working for the NSA brings a ton of rewards.
Here are the most obvious ones.
1) Self respect - how many people would love to be able to say they work for the NSA. It's a child hood dream for many Americans to be an actual SPY.
2) The NSA, unlike the CIA, actually lets people admit they work for them, although they do discourage it. So you can put it on your resume. It helps people get quite a few other jobs, particularly in government. I.E. It is a stepping stone to better emp

alternative competition

[astrofurter]

Perhaps NSA should run an alternative contest with more direct relevance to their personnel needs...

A Constitution-Burning Competition would surely select for the kind of candidates they require.