The National Security Agency recruits hackers at Def Con conference

Las Vegas, NV, United States (4E) – Calling all computer hackers. The National Security Agency (NSA) is recruiting hackers to bolster internet security. Four-star general and NSA Director General Keith Alexander believes that hackers and the US government should work together to develop new security tools for the Internet. Alexander made this bold statement during the 20th annual Def Con gathering in Las Vegas.

Def Con is a hacker convention that holds different “gaming” events, which include hacking into computers and networks. It is an annual event which first began in 1993 and is organized by Black Hat founder Jeff Moss aka The Dark Tangent.

Attendees of the conference were a bit skeptical of the US government’s intentions with recruiting hackers into the NSA. One of the attendees was quoted by The Guardian: “Americans pay taxes so that federal agencies can defend them. I see it as a hard sell asking a business entity to spend money for the common good.”

Alexander appeared in the conference in what seemed to be hacker attire — shirt and jeans — and tried to convince hackers to join the agency.

“Alexander used the speech to lobby for a cyber security bill moving through the Senate that would make it easier for companies under attack to share information with the government and each other as well as give critical infrastructure owners some reward for adhering to future security standards. Both parties see this as a significant problem. What are the standards that we should jointly set that critical networks should have?” as reported by The Guardian.

The NSA is tasked with electronic intelligence and protecting the American people and government from cyber-attacks. Hackers can indeed help improve the US’s online security since they know the ins and outs of Internet network security.

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