Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

by Kim Zetter

Who are the people filling these jobs? Sometimes they’re people like Charlie Miller, the mathematician mentioned in chapter 7 who was recruited by the NSA for code and computer cracking. And sometimes they’re former hackers, wanted by law enforcement as much for breaking into US government systems as they are coveted by spy agencies for their ability to do the same against an adversary. A shortage of highly skilled candidates in the professional ranks who can fill the demand for elite cyberwarriors has led the military and intelligence agencies to recruit at hacker conferences like Def Con, where they may have to forgive a hacker’s past transgressions or lower their expectations about office attire and body piercings to attract the choicest candidates. One code warrior employed by a government contractor told an interviewer that he worried that his history hacking US government systems would preclude him from working with the feds, but the staffing company that hired him “didn’t seem to care that I had hacked our own government years ago or that I smoked pot.”