[ISN] Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for U.S

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/us/31cyber.html

By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JOHN MARKOFF
The New York Times
May 30, 2009

MELBOURNE, Fla. — The government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set 
off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars 
in new defense contracts.

The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is 
enabling the companies to attract top young talent that once would have 
gone to Silicon Valley. And the race to develop weapons that defend 
against, or initiate, computer attacks has given rise to thousands of 
“hacker soldiers” within the Pentagon who can blend the new capabilities 
into the nation’s war planning.

Nearly all of the largest military companies — including Northrop 
Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — have major 
cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.

The companies have been moving quickly to lock up the relatively small 
number of experts with the training and creativity to block the attacks 
and design countermeasures. They have been buying smaller firms, 
financing academic research and running advertisements for “cyberninjas” 
at a time when other industries are shedding workers.

[...]


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