Hacker Boot Camp

May 1, 2007 12:00 PM

A new training course offered by Philadelphia-based Training Camp, a company that provides accelerated learning courses for IT professionals, is helping students learn to protect their companies' computer systems — by breaking into them, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The weeklong “Hacker Boot Camp” helps its students, who work for corporate IT departments, understand how hackers think and determine what makes systems vulnerable. “Want to create a fake record in a database? Want a $1 million account with your favorite bank? We can do that,” instructor Steve Kalman tells the newspaper. Before beginning the course, participants sign a statement saying they won't use their newfound knowledge negatively. Training Camp also avoids spreading information that might help real hackers.

“What we teach in this course are a lot of techniques that have long been patched and fixed because we're not trying to create a new generation of hackers,” Kalman says. Kalman spends about half his time teaching. The other half of his life, as a consultant in “penetration testing and computerized forensics,” keeps him up to speed in the classroom. Penetration testing involves helping businesses identify vulnerabilities in their IT systems.

In the class, he covers a wide range of topics, from wireless hacking to evading “honeypots,” or decoy systems set up to attract and catch hackers. Upon passing the class, students earn “Certified Ethical Hacker” status, an educational program overseen by the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants, a trade group. With incidents of stolen data regularly making headlines, the certification is in demand.

For more information on “Hacker Boot Camp,” visit http://trainingcamp.com/usa/noflash.aspx

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