杏吧原创

Is cybersecurity a lost cause?
Hackers seem to be able to penetrate secure systems at will 鈥� I鈥檓 thinking of last year鈥檚 hacks of and the security firm RSA.

Security is a game of chess and hactivism is simply a latterday enactment of a very old concept: civil disobedience. Any cryptographic system that people can engineer can be reverse engineered. Security is a process, not a thing you buy once in a shrink-wrapped box.

How do you get this idea of security across?
I have a global team of 200 ethical hackers who try to penetrate our clients鈥� systems, and also run phishing and other social engineering attacks on their employees. Then we educate them 鈥� and show them how to secure their organisations.

You鈥檙e running a UK government competition to spot cybersecurity talent among back-bedroom hackers. Why?
Because it鈥檚 the right thing to do. There鈥檚 a real skills shortage in info-security and there鈥檚 so much talent among the people who learn via unconventional routes. I want to make sure the next generation get the breaks I didn鈥檛 get as I stumbled through this.

What first grabbed you about computing?
I grew up in a family where everyone鈥檚 hobby was related to electronics or computing. I wrote my first BASIC program when I was 7 and got hooked on keying in programs listed in my Commodore magazines.

Any early lessons in cybersecurity?
Yes! My mum unplugged my computer and erased three days of my programming work. That taught me the value of having data backups very early on.

Presumably you aced the computing exams at school?
鈥楩raid not. I left school at 16 with few qualifications 鈥� my focus was on music. After realising I probably wouldn鈥檛 get the breaks I鈥檇 need to make it as a club DJ, I wondered if my computer interests could pay the rent. So I got a job building personal computer clones. I haven鈥檛 looked back.

How did that lead to a job in cybersecurity?
I did a spell at a bank headquarters where the Love Bug virus struck, taking down 1000 back-office computers. The bank鈥檚 then solution 鈥� the veteran Dr Solomon鈥檚 antivirus 鈥� couldn鈥檛 cope. But I worked out a secure way of recovering the network that prevented the Love Bug reinfecting the machines.

And after that?
I redesigned the online gaming security infrastructure for games like the FIFA soccer series, Battlefield 1942, Road to Rome, The Sims 2 and Medal of Honor. These are under continual attack by people trying to artificially elevate their scores and/or steal source code. Keeping pirated game code offline for the first five days after a game鈥檚 release makes all the difference to the sales revenue.