Intense School teaches tech pros to zap 'evil hackers', Christine Winter, Sun Sentinel

It is a lot harder to become an "ethical hacker" than it is to be an evil hacker, said Barry Kaufman, chief technology officer for The Intense School, a Fort Lauderdale company that trains information security professionals to hack into their own systems so they can figure out how to protect them from all the malicious hackers out there.

"An evil hacker just needs to find one hole and exploit it, and these holes are all over, in every application ever released," he said. "If you want to be a good, ethical hacker, you have to learn about all the holes and how to defend them. It's a much harder job."

The Intense School, a privately owned and profitable business, has offices here, as well as in San Diego; Columbus, Ohio; and the Washington, D.C., area; but gives seminars and workshops all over the country.

Kaufman said the company has trained information technology workers at the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency, as well as at computer software and security companies, on how to protect their systems.

Kaufman noted that it is easier than ever to become a bad hacker. "The skill required to do the propagation and development of worms and viruses is dropping at a great rate," he said, blaming the "incredible automated hacking tools" available on the Web. "Now anybody can just click and play hacker."

And that doesn't hurt the Intense School, since the surge in bad guys makes it that much more vital for the good guys to learn how to do their security testing "from the mindset of a hacker."

Kaufman said the recent blitz of viruses and worms doesn't necessarily translate into an immediate flurry of calls for his company's services.

"We deal with the information security community, and they have always been worried about this stuff," he said. "But the latest flurry of activity could eventually result in more budgeting for training down the road."

Christine Winter can be reached at cwinter@sun-sentinel .com or 954-356-4664. , 8/25/2003