[ISN] Hibbing man will fight hackers

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Thu Jun 05 2003 - 01:43:08 PDT

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    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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