[August 08, 2011] Pentagon woos hackers Tweet Aug 05, 2011 (dpa - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SAN FRANCISCO -- If you can't beat them, hire them. That appears to be the philosophy behind the latest scheme from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon department responsible for some of the US government's wackiest research projects, including the development of the internet. DARPA's latest scheme is a special programme launched earlier this week to entice hackers into working for the government on a variety of projects. Former hacker Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, who is now a DARPA project manager, presented the programme Thursday at the hacker conference Black Hat, saying that the so-called Cyber Fast Track programme plans to fund between 20 and 100 projects a year. Zatko said the project is designed to bridge the gap between the government and the hacker community. "The way government is set up, it's almost impossible for the small businesses, the researchers, the hackers, to get money for research without giving up intellectual property or being purchased and having their company gutted," Zatko said, according to a report in Information Week. "I want to make it easier." The project promises to cut the red tape in bidding for government cyber contracts and to speed the process by approving or declining projects within 20 days of receipt. It also gives hackers another key advantage by allowing them to keep the commercial rights to their work, while the Pentagon gets the government rights. "Of particular interest are efforts with the potential to reduce attack surface areas, reverse current asymmetries, or that are strategic, rather than tactical in nature," DARPA says in its proposal. "Proposed technologies may be hardware, software, or any combination thereof. Efforts developing proofs of concept or finished products are also of particular interest." To see more of dpa, go to http://www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html Copyright (c) 2011, dpa, Berlin Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]