Teens fight off hackers

LL, Mattoon, IL — Tue, 22 May 2007 00:30:43 GMT

This is so cool! I'm really glad that the high schoolers are able to do this sort of thing and learn from it as well. Today's kids are so much more computer savvy than people my age and I'm more savvy than my parents. I learned about computers on TRS80s way back in the mid-80s so that's ancient to these youngsters. However, I do remember a friend (computer science grad) hacking our college's database so that we could play our online text games in the early 90s. The internet sure has come a long way. I hope these young people continue stopping hackers on the internet and in other aspects of their lives. Keep up the good work.

Teens fight off hackers

Lay, T Pope AFB, NC — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:18:35 GMT

I completly agree, the only downfall of this is that they are exposing them to new ideas. The Thing about today is, we don't tend to do as much evil until we have come to understand it in some fashion. (i.e if a kid watches a robbery on t.v he/she looks at all the things that were done wrong, then in his/her mind try to alter what could have happened). Now granted they're not guaranteed to pursue this, still inhabits the fact that we are all faced with the choice to do good/evil. The only thing we can do to control this is to control the knowledge of evil. (completely an opinion)

I have learnt through all my computer expereinces that when i am exposed and stop someones little Hack/crack i see how i could have bettered what they did. I still think its a good idea to reward kids for doing the right thing. This imbeds in their mind that great things do come out of doing good.

Teens fight off hackers

tEA-TiME — Tue, 22 May 2007 04:37:42 GMT

This is an excellent exercise to teach our youth computer security and the how being on the good side is rewarding also.

To Lay, T Pope AFB, NC: Ignorance is what breeds evil. Do a search for "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength." and see what happens when people try to control knowledge and get to decide what is evil or not.

Teens fight off hackers

Matt, Omaha, NE — Tue, 22 May 2007 05:47:46 GMT

I think people do evil things whether or not they know about it. I would rather them learn in this type of setting and have group pressure to do the right thing rather than them learn from an outside source and start doing things on their own. Which I think would lead them down a path which would be a greater disservice to this world.

Teens fight off hackers

dennis emerine — Tue, 22 May 2007 06:29:51 GMT

I hope these kids look into amateur radio after all we were the the first wireless mode. we are on the internet and computers are other wireless modes that we use!!! 73's to you nerds n8ppr

Teens fight off hackers

N. Rosato - Groton, CT — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:39:25 GMT

WOW! What an excellent idea. Being more than fairly computer saavy (geek) and a former computer science major I find this type of competition completely fascinating. Most of the time (at least when I was in highschool in the late 90's) computer competitions consisted strictly of programming contests. Which basically boils down to the overall efficiency of the language being used and the depth of knowledge of the programmer(s) to utilize that language to its most efficient potential to quickly write a program to performa all assigned tasks. These competitions pit groups of human minds against eachother. Combine that with the fact that most of these kids are more than likely adept computer science students and i would like to see what new advances in security software and hardware these competitions will yield in the future. As for the right and wrong aspects of it. Well everyone makes their own choices, but keep this in mind: If you do not study the tools of your enemy its only a matter of time before he gets ahead. This is information warfare at its best. Bravo!

Teens fight off hackers

shawn thompson — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:41:06 GMT

The great part about this too is the re-understanding that the term "hacker" originated as a positive word, defining persons like myself that enjoy the art and spend hour upon hour in amazement about all that can be done with a computer. It was the term "cracker" that was originated with negative meaning (coined in the mid-80s by hackers who wanted to differentiate themselves from individuals whose sole purpose is to sneak through security systems), and then followed by the general person's ignorance about the terminology and difference therein (coupled with media's misinterpretation that made the distinction all but go away).

Congratulations to another great year in healthy competition and many successes that follow those that enjoyed the event.

Shawn Thompson
www.pchacker.com
pchacker@hotmail.com

Teens fight off hackers

James, Bridge City, TX — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:10:26 GMT

Why couldn't my school have something this cool? I would have loved to be in a group like this, but coming from a small town in Southeast Texas didn't give us much of a technological lead on things like this.

Teens fight off hackers

b.o.o.h.o.o. — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:10:55 GMT

perhaps High School Cyber Defense Competition and National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition need to get in touch with National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science (National IWITTS) to see if they can do a little better with the gender representation. If males and females do think differently, all IT teams need representation of both for the most varied solution matrix.

Teens fight off hackers

Andrew James Riemer, Winsted, MN — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:25:52 GMT

I'm going to take this idea back to the college where I teach technology part time. I'd love to see my students get involved in something like this on a collegiate level.

Teens fight off hackers

b.o.o.h.o.o, Athens, GA — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:37:16 GMT

Jordan "found herself doing girlie jobs?" Just say no next time!

Teens fight off hackers

david, Phoenix az — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:50:49 GMT

Good story

Teens fight off hackers

John Lennon, Greenville, NC — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:56:43 GMT

This is all good. I just wish the systems came along when I was in High School. pong.

Teens fight off hackers

Bennie Brooks, Bardstown, Ky — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:01:22 GMT

My son took part in the competition in Texas last month, he is going into network security and this was a good example for him to see how the real world could be. He was with the Univsity of Louisville team that came in 3rd place and they were excited to get third it was a long weekend but they enjoyed the challange.

Teens fight off hackers

Molly, St. Matthews, KY — Tue, 22 May 2007 22:38:16 GMT

Love the whole concept. As the only female (I refused then and now to use the term 'girl')in my high school who was a true geek...eons ago, when a slide rule was the ultimate geek toy...I'd have adored the chance to compete against others in such a fashion. And yes, I'm still a geek but took it in a different direction. Keep up the great, mind-expanding work. PS- went on to major in physics and chemistry, among several other degrees.

Teens fight off hackers

Gizmo, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada — Tue, 22 May 2007 23:20:12 GMT

Wow, I always wondered if such events happened around the glode. I am wonderig if such things happen here in Canada. Just wish it was so for when I was younger. It woudl have peeked my interest even more. As I was a computer class geek back in the 80's. (Yes I am dating myself here. I am now 40. LOL) I am hoping that schools and such in other parts will take this as a good example of how to help better the kids. And that the kids in turn, realize that there is a lot that they can do that is good. And also to help them better themselves as they get older. And realize that when they are called upon, they can use these talents to thwart what ever cyber threat comes around. I commend what is being done.

Teens fight off hackers

Daniel,Irvine, CA — Tue, 22 May 2007 23:54:48 GMT

This is a wonderful event they have going on. I wish when I was in high school that they had events like this to keep us a more involved. It would be a great idea to integrate this event with school across the country. I wish you guys the best of lucky and hope to see more articles regarding this topic.

Teens fight off hackers

Ed Svaleson, Ames, Iowa — Wed, 23 May 2007 00:27:36 GMT

I am the Public Relations Chair for the Information Assurance Student Group Association (the organization that hosts this event).

In response to the ethical concerns of getting high school students involved in such an event, you should know that along with training on security issues we also discuss ethics. The students are trained on how to secure, not necessarily how to attack, and they are well informed of this fact. The other side is that they get to meet the people who research how to track down unethical hackers. They also get to see the career options for Security Analysts.

I also wanted to mention that we are developing IASGA as a national organization. We hold several Cyber Defense Competitions (CDC) throughout the year, including our national collegiate CDC. These competitions are open to any team of students that are willing to travel to Ames, Iowa for the night of the competition. We will also be looking for other schools (both High Schools and Colleges) to join IASGA with their own chapters. If you wish that your school could do this, you can. You can check out our website at www.iasga.org. If want more information feel free to email me.

Ed Svaleson
IASGA Public Relations Chair
svaleson@iastate.edu

Teens fight off hackers

Ben Blakey, Ames, Iowa — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:02:35 GMT

Also, as the director of next year's Iowa State Cyber Defense Competitions, I wanted to drop a note that if you have a collegiate team that would like to participate in our national competition next Spring (Feb 2008) in Ames, please send me an email and we'll try to get it coordinated!

Ben Blakely
IASG President
CDC Director
bab@iastate.edu

Teens fight off hackers

Asona, MO — Thu, 24 May 2007 06:02:09 GMT

That's really something I would've loved to do in high school. As a college student, it wouldn't be a bad idea either. Too bad I'm not an ISU student or an Iowa resident. Thank god they're starting to show people that you can defend yourself against "cracker" threats.