--- title: Not All Hackers Are Evil description: The U.S. government needs people with computer skills on its side canonical: https://time.com/4274288/hackers/ author: Katie Moussouris article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-01T15:03:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:01.046Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Not All Hackers Are Evil og:description: The U.S. government needs people with computer skills on its side og:url: https://time.com/4274288/hackers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc68cb92b40f48ac/69888cdd8e060168e546534a/hacker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: 497260520 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Not All Hackers Are Evil twitter:description: The U.S. government needs people with computer skills on its side twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc68cb92b40f48ac/69888cdd8e060168e546534a/hacker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Not All Hackers Are Evil > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: How To Protect Your Selfies from Hackers [Watch (HLS stream): How To Protect Your Selfies from Hackers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VbTXeRNE.m3u8) (1:16)  _Published 2014-09-03. A little safety can help save your skin from ending up on 4 Chan._ by [Katie Moussouris](https://time.com/author/katie-moussouris/) ## Katie Moussouris Apr 1, 2016 3:03 PM UTC  hacker with laptop hacker with laptop Getty Images by [Katie Moussouris](https://time.com/author/katie-moussouris/) ## Katie Moussouris Apr 1, 2016 3:03 PM UTC In the 1983 movie [_WarGames_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/)_,_ a teenage hacker nearly starts a nuclear war. This premise [frightened](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to-a-hollywood-hack.html?%5Fr=0) President Ronald Reagan so much that the following year lawmakers passed the [Computer Fraud and Abuse Act](http://www.wired.com/2014/11/hacker-lexicon-computer-fraud-abuse-act/), which made hacking a felony. The prevailing wisdom was that hackers were dangerous because of the power they could wield over the increasingly computerized world. Fast forward 30 years and the term “hacker” is still often used [interchangeably with “criminal](http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/vulnerability-disclosure-deja-vu-prosecute-crime-not-research/a/d-id/1320384).” Additional laws, such as the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/07/jeep-hack-shows-why-dmca-must-get-out-way-vehicle-security-research), further criminalize hacking activities. But not all hackers are evil. In fact, the Internet today could not exist without their skills in uncovering security weaknesses and the willingness of many to report those holes to get them fixed. We have reached a major turning point in the prevailing attitude toward hackers. The very government that created laws to deter them is now inviting them to work for it. In a move that would have​ ​been unthinkable just a few years ago, the Department of Defense recently announced plans to​ ​launch a new program, which I helped them create, called “[Hack the Pentagon](http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/710033/hack-the-pentagon-pilot-program-opens-for-registration)” and is offering to pay hackers for​ ​finding security flaws in government websites. The Department of Defense needs all the help it can get. Governments accustomed to military and economic dominance around the world are​ ​faced with the stark reality that in order to win the cyber arms race—and protect to the​ ​Internet on which commerce, communications and critical infrastructure rely around the​ ​world—they must embrace hackers. Visions of super soldiers in science fiction of the​ ​past may not have included men and women sitting behind keyboards. But today those same men and women are responsible​ ​for creating our technological world—and are equally capable of unleashing destruction upon it. With fierce competition for technically capable individuals in private industry, some estimates state that we have a [shortage of 1 million security workers](http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2016/01/02/one-million-cybersecurity-job-openings-in-2016/#c22e0f67d274) in the U.S. This puts the U.S. at a distinct disadvantage compared to countries such as China, which can [recruit](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/world/asia/in-china-hacking-has-widespread-acceptance.html) from its population by coercion if necessary to fill its ranks of hackers to carry out both military campaigns and economic espionage against other countries. In a free society, the only way to identify technical talent among the population is to both provide safe harbor for people with the skills to hack and to offer cash compensation in the form of “bug bounties” for identifying security holes. Hence, this major shift in policy. Hack the Pentagon is a necessary step in establishing our security in a future that depends on the Internet. With a [growing gap in STEM capabilities in the youth of the U.S](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/02/u-s-students-improving-slowly-in-math-and-science-but-still-lagging-internationally/)., the program could also be an inspiration to young people deciding on college majors today and help close that critical gap. When the world was in the middle of the Cold War, the U.S. faced a similar problem in asserting and maintaining its technological dominance. The Space Race served to mobilize and inspire the populations of both the U.S. and Soviet Union to compete to reach the next frontier of war. Those who controlled space would have a clear advantage in military capability. Televising the successful launches of both of the emerging superpowers was not just propaganda to flex muscle; it also served as inspiration for the next generation to study science and math. Children played astronaut or cosmonaut. No longer were fireworks the most exciting thing kids could shoot into the skies from their backyards. Now, they were rocket ships, carrying toy soldiers into the sky, and the dreams of childhood fueled the eventual careers of future rocket scientists needed for this new age of humanity. The lunar landing was not just one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind—it was a call to arms. Hack the Pentagon, and the governments who will follow this crowdsourcing strategy for identifying vital cybersecurity talent today, are laying the foundation for the next frontier. What happens in this generation and those to come stands to shift global power so profoundly that it could mean the end of the current global economic and military superpowers, and herald the beginning of the next global empire. The cyber space race has helped cause this shift in attitude toward hackers in the U.S.—from dangerous criminals capable of starting a nuclear war to partners in technology who are embraced and celebrated. We must recognize hackers as the precious resource they are. 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