India Using Kids to Catch Hackers

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,40951,00.html

[None of the 19 teenagers have a criminal record, But you have to
wonder how many of them are active defacers?  - WK]

Reuters
6:00 a.m. Jan. 3, 2001 PST

NEW DELHI -- Teenage computer hackers will play cyber policemen to
help an Indian panel tackle Internet crimes, a top software industry
official said on Wednesday.

The National Cyber Cop Committee set up by the industry will be
advised by a group of 19 hackers, all between 14 and 19 years of age,
based in larger cities, Dewang Mehta, president of the National
Association of Software and Service Companies, told a news conference.

"They are brilliant. They told me that within five minutes they can
hack the (Indian) defense ministry website ..." he said. "If you want
to catch hold of a hacker, you need the brains of a hacker," Mehta
said.

"We want to use them positively so that they can create adequate
firewalls so that nobody can hack our country's websites," he added.

These hackers do not possess a formal engineering background but are
innovative, creative and technically very sound with source codes,
Mehta said.

"The 14-year old attends school. None of them (the 19 teenagers) have
a criminal record."

Mehta said the new committee will hold workshops for judicial and
police officers to help them learn to distinguish between various
Internet-related offences.

Last year, India passed a landmark digital law to crack down on
Internet crimes and enable e-commerce. But vast sections of police and
the bureaucracy in the country, where use of computers in governance
is limited, have little knowledge of such crimes.

"The committee has representative police officials from all states,
the Central Bureau of Investigation and the ministry of home
(interior) affairs," Mehta said. "We've had discussions with the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation also."

He said the new committee would evolve various ways to prevent
government websites from being hacked.

"Hacking, spreading viruses are much bigger criminal offenses in cyber
terrorism than pornography," Mehta said.

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