Hibbing man will fight hackers

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/6014532.htm

BY STEVE KUCHERA
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 05, 2003

Hibbing native Mike Swanson has long enjoyed computers.

Now he's on the path to protecting them.

Swanson, a recent University of Wisconsin-Superior graduate, is 
entering the federal Cyber Corps program, which will pay for his 
master's degree. In exchange, he'll work for the government for at 
least two years, defending the country against Internet hackers and 
terrorists.

"It's new, it's cutting-edge," he said. "It's ironic that part of our 
learning curve is to learn how to hack computers so we can prevent 
future hacking."

Attacks on the Internet and computers are increasing. According to the 
Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center at Carnegie 
Mellon University, 82,094 such incidents were reported last year. That 
compares with 55,100 during 2001 and 21,756 during 2000.

"It's very easy to attack the Internet -- there are no boundaries," 
said Vipin Kumar, director of the Army High Performance Computing 
Research Center. "You sit anywhere and attack a computer anywhere in 
the world."

The center is working with the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities to 
develop an intrusion detection system to help prevent cyberattacks on 
computer systems. Luckily, Kumar said, many of the attacks are 
launched by solitary hackers who are bored and doing it for their own 
pleasure.

"If an organized entity launches these attacks, they will be meant to 
do big damage," he said. "And the amount of damage that can be done is 
enormous."

To help defend against such attacks, the National Science Foundation 
announced in May 2001 that it would pay for Scholarship-for-Service 
programs at six colleges, including the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, 
Okla.

Swanson is one of just 12 students accepted for Tulsa's Cyber Corps 
program next fall. The federal government will pay the students' 
tuition and room and board, travel to conferences and a stipend.

Between his two years of graduate school, Swanson will learn firsthand 
about computer security at a federal agency during a summer 
internship. After he graduates with a master's degree in computer 
science as well as several federal computer security certificates, 
he'll go to work for the federal government.

Swanson was excited when he learned the government had accepted him to 
the Cyber Corps program.

"I was just blown away," he said. "They pay for everything.

"The prof at Tulsa put it to me in this way," Swanson said. " 'You can 
go to work for Microsoft and make six figures in a few years. Or you 
can go to work for the government and not make as much money, but 
you're going to have a life. You're not going to have red eyes, 
sitting in front of a computer monitor for 16 hours a day. You're 
going to have time for family, vacations.' "

Swanson, 23, decided in high school to make computers his career.

"I took a programming class, and I was fairly good at it," he said.

However, his interest in computers began earlier.

"When I was about 6, 7, 8, I use to copy programs out of a book," 
Swanson said. "I had no clue what I was doing. I would just type each 
character. I would be excited just to see what would happen on the 
screen."

Despite his interest in computers, Swanson hadn't planned on going to 
college, far less to grad school.

"Then I went to HCC and got my AA degree," he said, referring to 
Hibbing Community College. "Then, nearing the end of my schooling at 
HCC, I thought I might as well look for a four-year degree."

He decided to pursue a degree in computer science at UWS because of 
the school's small size and reputation for one-on-one attention.

It's because of one of his instructors, Victor Piotrowski, that 
Swanson learned about the Cyber Corps program and will now work toward 
a master's degree. Piotrowski once asked Swanson to perform some 
research on computer security and the Cyber Corps program.

"One day he said to me, 'Have you thought about graduate school?' " I 
said 'not really.' Here I was, nearing the end of my bachelor's's 
degree and I'm going on again. It has to end sometime soon."



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