Armies of Hackers

[HemlockGrey]

Does the United States or any other developed nation retain, under the armed forces or some other branch of the government, an organization devoted solely to developing new and interesting ways to hack into the computers of potential enemies?

[Sea Skimmer]

Almost certainly. It's pretty inconvincible that the NSA or CIA don't have a large number of such people on staff. Its also unlikely that they'd ever openly declare them to congress or anyone else.

[Admiral Valdemar]

You mean Tiger Teams? If individual coprorations and my university and old college have them, I would hazard at a yes.

[CelesKnight]

Does the United States or any other developed nation retain, under the armed forces or some other branch of the government, an organization devoted solely to developing new and interesting ways to hack into the computers of potential enemies?

Probably. I think that there is another thread here which says that Australia(?) has a contingency plan to hack the US if the US ever attacks them. I've also seen reports of China having similar plans.

[phongn]

Does the United States or any other developed nation retain, under the armed forces or some other branch of the government, an organization devoted solely to developing new and interesting ways to hack into the computers of potential enemies?

Yes. The NSA almost certainly has one. The Army has a Red Team just for this purpose as well. The CIA probably has a team as well.

[Companion Cube]

I can't think of any reason they wouldn't. So yeah, considering the evidence above, it stands to reason that most first world military groups or security services have hacking teams.

[Nathan F]

Does the United States or any other developed nation retain, under the armed forces or some other branch of the government, an organization devoted solely to developing new and interesting ways to hack into the computers of potential enemies?

Probably. I think that there is another thread here which says that Australia(?) has a contingency plan to hack the US if the US ever attacks them. I've also seen reports of China having similar plans.

So, Australia has heard of our plans to take them out right after NK...

I hear that the jury is still out in England on whether or not to help with this one.

[2000AD]

If these armies of hackers are as effective as the hackers in C&C:G then god help us all!

[Sarevok]

If these armies of hackers are as effective as the hackers in C&C:G then god help us all!

From my personal experience as a programmer I would say quality rather than quantity is important. A small team of dedicated C programmers could achieve what a million VB and Java script kiddies could not. Of course you would need people for any large project but the numbers would still be meager compared to other parts of the defense such as infantry foot soldiers. So National Cyber Warfare Center would be a better term than American Hacker Army.