This Week's Report: "Computer Hacking"

Staff writer Marcia Clemmitt delves into the secretive worlds of computer hacking and cyber crime in this week’s CQ Researcher report. Malicious cyber attacks are causing billions of dollars in damage per year to corporate, government, military and other computer systems, and hacking skills are in rising demand as tech companies and police try to fight back, Marcia reports. “Ironically…,” she writes, “the only way to thwart the attacks is to hire people possessing many of the same technical skills and personality traits as the perpetrators. The trick, though, is to hire hackers who want to do good rather than ill.”

One telling fact: One computer-security company finds that in just three months of Web surfing, the average computer user has a 95 percent chance of visiting a site infected by malicious software. Technology classes and students writing papers on cyber ethics and online security will find this report of special interest.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor