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German Military Hires Hackers

by Evan Shamoon on February 10, 2009 at 04:03 PM


According to a report by German Web site Heise.de, the Bundeswehr (essentially the German armed forces -- and no, not the American beer manufacturer) is recruiting hackers in order to "penetrate, manipulate and damage hostile networks."

Slashdot has a rough translation of the original article, which includes this tasty nugget of information: "The Regiment is stationed in Rheinbach, near Bonn, and consists of several dozen graduates from Bundeswehr universities. They're training at the moment, but the 'hackers in uniforms' are supposed to be operational by next year. This regiment officially belongs to the Kommando Strategische Aufklärung [strategic reconnaissance], and is commanded by Brigadier General Friedrich Wilhelm Kriesel. The Bundeswehr has not said anything to this regiment yet."

While this is nothing entirely new -- the NSA has hired many hackers over the years in the name of "keeping America safe" -- it's the first report of such action in Germany. And the whole notion of "hackers in uniform" sorta makes us wonder: Will future military video games have us playing the role of the hacker sitting in front of 50 monitors rather than shooting bad guys in the face? [From: Slashdot]

Tags: bundeswehr, german, hackers, military, security, top

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