Hibbing native Mike Swanson has long enjoyed computers. Now he’s on the path to protecting them. Swanson, a recent University of Wisconsin-Superior graduate, is entering the federal Cyber Corps program, which will pay for his master’s degree. In exchange, he’ll work for the government for at least two years, defending the country against Internet hackers and terrorists. “It’s new, it’s cutting-edge,” he said. “It’s ironic that part of our learning curve is to learn how to hack computers so we can prevent future hacking.” Attacks on the Internet and computers are increasing. According to the Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, 82,094 such incidents were reported last year. That compares with 55,100 during 2001 and 21,756 during 2000. “It’s very easy to attack the Internet — there are no boundaries,” said Vipin Kumar, director of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center. “You sit anywhere and attack a computer anywhere in the world.” The center is working with the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities to develop an intrusion detection system to help prevent cyberattacks on computer systems. Luckily, Kumar said, many of the attacks are launched by solitary hackers who are bored and doing it for their own pleasure. Full Story
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