Pentagon workers trained to hack Defense computers

A CNN report says the Pentagon is training people to hack into its own computer networks reasoning that “to beat a hacker, you need to think like one.”


A company called Electronic Commerce Consultants, or EC-Council, was chosen by the Pentagon to oversee training of Department of Defense employees who work in computer security-related jobs and certify them when the training is complete.


The program is called "Certified Ethical Hacker certification."

Almost 45,000 attacks on Defense Department computers were reported in the first half of 2009, according to a government report. The report estimated that for all of 2009, the number of attacks would be up 60 percent from the previous year.

Fending off the attacks costs the Pentagon about $100 million.

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