125 lines of code. That’s the average amount of code for most malware attacks. 125 lines of code. Counter measures? Around 10 million lines. It’s this asymmetry that Peiter Zatok (aka Mudge and former member of L0pht) wants to tackle as a project manager at DARPA.
Speaking at the ShmooCon hacker convention in Washinton, D.C., Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project manager Peiter Zatko has announced Cyber Fast Track, a new scheme that will rely on the skills of “small organizations, boutiques, hacker spaces, [and] maker labs” in order to find cybersecurity solutions.
link: Government Employs Hackers in Brave New Scheme – PCWorld Business Center
This might sound farfetched, but in today’s programming world it’s far from it. I’ve been to a few hack-a-thons where a company brings all their developers in as well as developers from the community to try to quickly crank out new features (or fixes) to their products. The results can be just stunning. So why should hardening security and fighting malware and viruses be any different?
Sure there are potential issues with doing this, but frankly if we need a solution fast getting a bunch of geeks in a room with lots of coffee, pop, and pizza … it’s not going to get much faster than that.