The recruiting of hackers by the United States has begun

Dec 8, 2011 08:43 GMT  ·  By

Charlie Miller, the former hacker that proved many of Apple’s most successful products to be vulnerable to cleverly set up attacks, has been contacted by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to share his insight on the security issues that currently imperil companies and individuals.

He was invited to NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in Tallinn, where he talked about the weaknesses currently present in computer networks, reports The Hacker News.

“Basically, I’m giving a talk about some of the breaches that happened recently, the big breaches and do some analysis on what they have in common,” said Miller. “Basically what I conclude is that there are all these vulnerabilities in software.”

Miller is known in the security world for all the vulnerabilities he discovered in Apple products. His most recent find showed how a remote attacker would be able to execute unsigned code from a remote server by using a flaw in iOS.

At the time, the former hacker submitted an application to Apple’s iTunes App Store and after it was approved, he revealed to the world how easy it could be for an attacker to launch a malicious campaign. Even though they weren’t too happy about Miller’s research, Apple quickly moved to fix the flaw to make sure no one can take advantage of it.

Some time ago, the DoD revealed its intentions of hiring hackers to help them better mitigate internet threats and it seems as they already found someone competent who could really help.

Yesterday, a hacker from TeaMp0isoN told me that if he were put in charge with security, 80% of the fraud attempts in the world could be stopped. If he’s right, a man like Charlie Miller could really make a difference when it comes to protecting state and private organizations.