Elite US cyber-squad Vigilant recruits hackers from DefCon

Elite US cyber-squad Vigilant recruits hackers from DefCon
By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, August 1st, 2010 -- 10:11 pm

An elite US cyber team that has stealthily tracked Internet villains for more that a decade pulled back its cloak of secrecy to recruit hackers at a notorious DefCon gathering in Las Vegas.

Vigilant was described by its chief Chet Uber as a sort of cyber "A-Team" taking on terrorists, drug cartels, mobsters and other enemies on the Internet.

"We do things the government can't," Uber said. "This was never supposed to have been a public thing."

Vigilant is an alliance of slightly more than 600 volunteers and its secret ranks reportedly include chiefs of technology at top firms and former high-ranking US cyber spies.

The group scours Internet traffic for clues about online attacks, terrorists, cartels and other targets rated as priorities by members of the democratically run private organization.



unhappycamper comment: There's nothing like a private army of hackers to make the internets safe useless.

What does that really mean??