The question of how we can stop great hackers from turning to the dark side is an age old one. Resources are tight, budgets tighter. This question was reimagined by the team at The Hacking Games for a panel session at this year’s International Cyber Expo on the brand new Diversity & Skills Stage, led by Fergus Hay, Co-Founder and CEO of The Hacking Games, and Daan Dia, Co-Founder of The Hacking Games.
The panel also featured Chris Kubecka, Senior Cyber Security Advisor at Elemental Concept, and Tim Grieveson, Senior Vice President and Global Cyber Risk Advisor at Bitsight, who shared their thoughts on the future of ethical hacking, rooted in lived experiences. Kubecka, for example, was arrested at the age of 10 at her school library for hacking the US Department of Justice.
A key theme of the panel was the importance of embracing talent. However, it’s crucial to make sure that talent doesn’t start or end up on the wrong path. The Hacking Games team see “hacking as a creative thinking mindset” that needs to be tapped early. The industry needs to find, embrace and nurture talent earlier. However, it’s imperative to educate kids on the full breadth of opportunities available, which can be hard. Fortunately, children are inquisitive naturally, the panel noted, but we need to channel the right enthusiasm in the right places.
The panel also noted the success of existing school initiatives like Cyber Warriors, educational resources that teach cyber concepts to students developed by the Cyber Security Research Group at the University of Southampton in association with the NSCS.
The panel speakers also noted that ethical hacking is a hard sell. It can’t compete with the glamorised Hollywood images of the hooded hackers in dark basements plotting world demise. Black hat hacking is still a crime – and a significant one at that. Ethical hacking has an image problem; it’s not ‘sexy’, but it is, undeniably, cool. Social engineering is a real job and you only have to read Jenny Radcliffe’s People Hacker book to see how cool it really is!
So why do young people turn to cybercrime? White hat hacking doesn’t pay well (necessarily). This needs to change, according to Grieveson, who thinks that attitudes to cyber budgets should change in line with increased responsibility, litigation and the changing threat landscape.
What can the industry do to make sure kids don’t fall down the wrong path? Mentorship, for one. Having positive mentors can open doors to (legitimate) employment and opportunity for talented people. The panel noted that the industry needs to do more in this space, else we risk missing out on the next Steve Jobs who, after all, earned the seed capital to start Apple through hacking.
The Hacking Games also announced during the session that they’re working to ‘gamify’ cyber for kids, striving to meet them where they’re at (notably TikTok, Minecraft and Roblox). The organisation has set out to reinvent cyber education for a new generation, acknowledging that traditional programmes are a turn off for kids. They’re doing this through integrations with popular online gaming platforms and by creating engaging video content (like documentaries and reality shows).
The final takeaway? Hackers are not underground. They’re in suburban homes. Kids are an asset and should be seen as such.
