That's sort of what the U.S. government is saying to a group of college kids from Polytechnic Institute of New York University, who are in training to become “white-hat” hackers – computer experts who can help business and government agencies protect their data from cyber attacks.

The group of about two dozen teens and 20-somethings meets weekly in a room on a college campus for “Hack Night,” where they scarf down pizza, listen to electronica and oh, furiously hack into computer networks via their laptops.

The students aren't really hacking (that would be illegal!), they're tackling exercises designed by cyber security experts that expose real-world hacking scenarios – which is a growing concern for the U.S. government. Cyber attacks are a near-daily experience. 

Dan Guido, the group's “Hacker In Residence” who runs a cybersecurity firm, leads the students through a common way hackers gain access to a computer network — by attacking the software of an Internet browser.

Guido uses the June 2011 cyber attack stemming from China that attempted to access hundreds of Google (News - Alert) e-mail accounts as an example. Students map out, step by step, how the hacker was able to access a desktop computer and infiltrate the company's network.

Though the Brooklyn-based NYU-Poly has not previously been considered a cyber security top dog, at least not when compared with larger schools like Georgia TechPurdue and Carnegie Mellon, Hack Night is changing that. The college is now hailed as a top destination for training mission-critical cyber security skills. 

Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute (News - Alert), a cyber security training organization, praises the real-world training NYU-Poly undergrads and grad students receive. “They come out having actually developed and tested their skills,” Paller says, adding that the need for cyber security experts with real world training is direly needed.

“We have too many people in the cyber security field that don't have the hands-on skills,” says Paller.