Pemdasi sez, “Peiter Zatko, aka mudge, a former member of both the Cult of the Dead Cow and l0pht now works for DARPA and wants to give out short term DARPA contracts to places like hackerspaces to find solutions to cybersecurity concerns. Maybe some lucky hackerspace will get some money to make drone swarms.”
He spoke of creating “hacker incubators” and made it clear that the DoD would not request commercial rights to any innovations discovered.
Essentially, Zatko wants to sponsor researchers, rather than providing them with rewards if they do well. This is much more in thinking with typical hacker aspirations–getting somebody to pay the bills while they do the things they love. And, in any case, at the end of the process the hacker or team concerned is free to seek all the rewards they can get for the work.
Zatko merely wants to exploit the huge brain power and creativity of the hacker community, and as a former member, he knows exactly what makes it tick. Although his scheme will not go into operation for a few months yet, the signs are that it might produce results that improve security for all of us.
Government Employs Hackers in Brave New Scheme
(Thanks, Pemdasi, via Submitterator!)