Hackers enter corporate loop

[mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cth071.htm

Hackers enter corporate loop
Renowned code-crackers join button-down security firm
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

With concern over computer viruses and electronic terrorism high, Silicon
Valley has decided to fight hackers with hackers.

A renowned group of Boston-area hackers known as L0pht has been acquired
by a computer security startup firm called @Stake backed by $10 million in
venture capital.

The marriage melds top executives of such button-down firms as Compaq
Computer and Forrester Research with eight young long-hairs with names
like Mudge, Space Rogue and Dildog.

"Is this a weird mix that raises cultural challenges? Sure," says Ted
Julian, an @Stake vice president who used to be a lead analyst at
Forrester. But "they're the best."

The Justice Department and Securities & Exchange Commission have hired
L0Pht as consultants. The self-described consumer advocates told the
Senate last year that they could shut down the Internet in 30 minutes.
L0pht members describe themselves as "gray hats," on the edge between good
and evil hackers. Besides selling security software, they broke into
corporate systems and alerted the firms to weaknesses.

They also put warnings on the Web that gave malicious hackers enough
information to duplicate their feats. "We tried to educate people,"  says
Mudge, L0pht's former chief and @Stake's vice president of research. But
technology analyst Howard Rubin says, "That's like publicizing the
blueprint for burglar alarms in banks."

@Stake, based in Cambridge, Mass., will sell security services to bolster
corporate firewalls, ward off viruses and protect credit-card and other
electronic commerce data. John Rando, a former senior vice president at
Compaq, will be chairman. The company bills itself as the first "pure
play" Web security consultant, beholden to no software maker or ancillary
service.

Mudge says L0pht made the move because "we didn't have the management
expertise or business savvy to handle all the people coming to us."  Says
Rubin, "The question is whether hackers and technical experts can also
supply the leadership" a startup needs.

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