Obama Taps Well-Known Hacker - "Dark Tangent" - as Security Adviser

[jefferson_dem]

Sorry about the FauxNews link -

Obama Taps Well-Known Hacker as Security Adviser
Monday , June 08, 2009

The Obama administration is embracing the dark side to help it fight cyberattacks.

On Friday, a well-known hacker was one of 16 people named to the Department of Homeland Security's Advisory Council (HSAC).

Jeff Moss, aka "Dark Tangent," started out as a high-school "phone phreak" making free long-distance calls and later founded the DefCon and Black Hat hackers' conferences.

He's since worked in information security for accounting giant Ernst & Young, and now is a consultant testing corporations' cybersecurity.

But he told Wired News and Cnet News he was genuinely surprised to be asked to join a government law-enforcement body.

"I always figured that because of my associations in the past that I would be kind of out of the running for anything like this," he told Wired News.

Moss, 39, went legit years ago after growing disillusioned with the hacker underground.

"You can only stand by and watch so many people you know get busted," he told Wired News in a 2001 interview. "Sooner or later you catch on that ... there's a limited life span to doing this kind of stuff. So before I got out of high school that was pretty much it."

Still, he stands out in a council heavy with law-enforcement bigwigs.

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http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,525428,00.html

[Cha]

1. I love it~ Redemption

baby!

[Soylent Brice]

2. cool. use the resources you have.

[SoCalDem]

3. Gotta go to the source, if you want the real information

:)_

[Kingofalldems]

4. "It Takes A Thief"--starring Robert Wagner

[Arkana]

5. Absolutely amazing.

I love it. Talk about redemption.

[asphalt.jungle]

6. that's obama's m.o. ... employ the people who know where to look

novices who are pure need not apply.

[Fire1]

7. i.e. Geitner.

[Cha]

11. I like the way you

put that.

[boppers]

8. Founded DefCon and Black Hat?

Nice, that means that if he doesn't know the answer, someone in his "rolodex" does.

(For those not in the industry, DefCon and Black Hat are information sharing groups/conferences, where people sometimes compete against each other in finding vulnerabilities)

[Bolo Boffin]

9. And suddenly all his nominees' tax problems disappear... n/t

[Hutzpa]

10. I know this fucker

we've met in a chat room way back wwhen it was a chatroom.
Dark Tangent....:rofl:

Must admit, learned a thing or two from him though.