Hacker: a popular business

 

Hacker : A popular business.

Businesses and gouvernements do not hesitate to recruit pirates to deal with cyber attacks . A nonconformist spirit, a obsessive personality and good computer skills will be an advantage for candidates.

Its not necessary to embark on this career if you plan to develop illegal activities. ZDNet, american webzine specialized in new technologies, remind you that "you will eventually be arrested and you go to jail or pay for damage you caused to your target."Its will be better at the time when states are investing heavily in cyber security, to choose a career on the right side of the law. However the demand for talent explodes. From  gouvernment agengy or military, especially since the discovery in June 2010 Stuxnet virus on Iran's nuclear program.

The United States leader in this race are in the process of developing cyberindustry. In the Washington area, home of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.S. Cyber ​​Command established in 2009, development of hundreds of companies specializing bringing the number of jobs related to information technology to "over 280,000," reports the Financial Times. "It's more than in Silicon Valley or New York."

According to one of the companies interviewed by the business newspaper, the U.S. government would spend "$ 10 billion annually for cybersecurity" and "this number may well increase by 9% per year." Furthermore, "the Obama administration has pledged to invest $ 500 million to develop technologies to improve network security and defense technologies."At these amounts are add annual expenditure of private enterprises: the "U.S. market cyberarmes weighs 100 billion on its own," reports the Financial Times.

How do you become a hacker?

 

 Rest assured: he doesn’t need to sell his soul to the devil for success. But rather to be dedicated  and intellegent :You must have love for resolving problems and to have a gift for verbal and written communication and be able to find a  new ways when the known solutions doesn’t  work. “

Obsessive personalities often make good hackers,to become proficient it may take a several years and requires a lot of personal investment.

In terms of technological qualities, the webzine said that one must obviously "be passionate about computers, their operation and communication mode. If you do not program, you will learn a few languages​​, starting with Python, C/C++, Java, Perl et Lisp. You must be also interesting in open source operating systems like Linux or FreeBSD wich will allow you to improve your talents.

It then remains to be known and for that to be involved in a project. ZDNet recommends to mobilize you in the area of open source, always in search of reinforcements. This is, for example, to participate in the "debug  applications or help in drafting the documentation."

Participation in such projects is a plus in terms of credibility, essential for the rest of your career. Another useful curriculum: a university training in ethical hacking and cyber security.

Romain Vrignon