Pentagon to recruit Russian hackers

An adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama said that the U.S. has a new plan to combat cyberwarfare.

The U.S. government has a plan to put the skills of the best hackers in the world to work fighting terrorism and designing security systems for government agencies. John Arquilla, an adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama’s and the man who coined the term“cyberwarfare” told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that the U.S. Defense Department plans to hire about 100 hackers, primarily Russians for the initiative.

Arquilla accused the Pentagon of wasting billions of dollars on “pointless aircraft carriers, tanks and planes at the expense of nimbler, leaner strategy” of spending on experts. He said that as a result the U.S. has fallen behind other superpowers in the global cyber race.

“We intend to set up something like the English Bletchley Park (where the UK ran decryption operations during World War II),” said Arquilla. “We will hire Russians and Asians. They are definitely the best code crackers in the world. I have already established contact with several very influential hackers. I even brought one to meet the CEO of a major company to evaluate the vulnerability of his information systems. He managed to break into the system in just a few minutes.”

Russian hackers do not rule out the possibility of cooperating with the U.S. government, provided it observes a number of crucial factors.

Said one hacker known as Zeus: “I’ll agree if they offer me a fair salary and good living accommodations. Another important thing is that my activities mustn’t be aimed at Russia. I don’t want to be a traitor. There’s a great deal of advantages in working in the U.S. like opportunities to realize my potential, high living standards and an evolved society.”

Another hacker said that working for the U.S. government is, on the one hand, fairly risky, but on the other hand, a very lucrative and stable business.

“Our task is to make sure those who agree to work for us have all they need. America has always lavishly spent money on the best specialists in the world. That’s why I’m sure we’ll persuade them to cooperate,” Arquilla said.

Source: Izvestia Ru