Posted on Sunday, 27th February 2011 by Nathan Thorpe

We have all seen the movie “Catch Me If You Can” about Frank Abagnale Jr.’s exploits into check fraud and professional impersonation.  Amazing to believe that he actually studied and passed the Louisiana State Bar Exam (in two weeks mind you) without ever going to law school, but we digress.  You may recall that the ending was rather nice:  Abagnale ends up working for the FBI then ultimately earns “millions a year” as a consultant to banks.  Not a bad way to go…lead a life of crime, then use your expertise to score the big bucks with a legitimate job.

So, with the rise of the hacker nation, are there hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young Frank Abignale’s out there who the government should hire?  We have often said the the most bleeding-edge hackers are one-step-ahead…wouldn’t you want to hire the guy that is smarter than you, one step ahead and always elusive?  This would be a good thing for government in our new cyber war, right?

According to NextGov, the Department of Homeland Security is unable to hire “friendly hackers” and other computer whizzes as consultants because of outdated policies that Congress and the White House must reform.   Yesterday, the Aspen Institute hosted an event that featured DHS Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, as well as current DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who discussed this very issue at George Washington University.

According to NextGov, here’s what Ridge had to say:

“With the regulations associated with bringing in private citizens — to sit side by side by with the government in order to advance a broader interest of security and safety — it is very, very difficult,” Ridge said. “The [regulations] are written to the extent where, we’re not really going to trust people in the private sector because, heaven forbid, they might be financially advantaged either with a contract or just general information.”

Though, this begs the question…the Secret Service paid notorious hacker, Albert Gonzalez, $75,000 a year for his consulting services.  But then again, that did not turn out very well.

At the end of “Catch Me If You Can,” you may recall that Abagnale found himself with nothing to do on a Friday (this is after he had been working with the FBI) and he decided to make a run for it, once again impersonating a Pan Am airline pilot.  Do you recall what happened?  He showed up back at work at the FBI on Monday.  Would today’s hackers to the same thing…have an ethical streak and do the right thing?   We don’t know…the only thing we do know is that there’s a lot of cyber talent out there and the government should do more to tap into into.

We welcome all thoughts and comments.

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