http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,33%257E466315,00.html By Jennifer Beauprez and Kris Hudson Denver Post Business Writers Sunday, March 17, 2002 - You've heard of basketball camps for kids. But what about a summer camp for hackers? White Hat Technologies, a Denver security firm that hires reformed hackers, wants to host the first-annual Hacker Camp in metro Denver next year. Thubten Comerford, chief executive of White Hat, said he wants to teach teenage hackers how to use their talents and brains for the good guys. "This would be an opportunity for young people to use their powers for good, to hack without getting into trouble," Comerford said. The event could also help White Hat in uncovering vulnerabilities and recruiting future employees, he said. Comerford is trying to drum up sponsors for the event and is talking to three universities about hosting it on one of their campuses. The company has also devised hacker contests, or "Hack Offs," to qualify for the two-week camp. Comerford hasn't determined whether sponsors would foot the entire bill for all participants. The online contests devised by White Hat are similar to a virtual game of capture the flag, traversing through multiple firewalls, servers and routers, and then finding and decrypting passwords. "It would be kind of like a video game," Comerford said. "The kids that show the most promise would then come to the camp." Comerford admits that the camp could wind up teaching kids an illegal activity, but said he believes the opportunity will outweigh that chance. For more information, e-mail hackercampat_private Jennifer Beauprez writes on technology and the Internet. She may be reached at jbeauprezat_private Kris Hudson covers telecommunications and can be reached at khudsonat_private - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Mar 18 2002 - 03:27:55 PST