Invite a few übergeeks over to play a cybersecurity simulation game, and you can bet the winner will be the one who most creatively breaks the rules:
Last July, during the inaugural round of the online cybersecurity simulation game NetWars, 75 contestants vied to hack into and control the game’s 12 servers, planting their user names on the conquered computers to declare their territory. But one contestant, known as SevenM7, had other ideas. Instead of focusing on the game’s targets, he hijacked NetWars’ scorekeeping algorithm. SevenM7′s tally of wins spiked. When the game ended he had three times as many points as any of his baffled competitors.
Some might view SevenM7 (in real life, a 17-year-old high school junior named Michael Coppola) as a cheater or, worse, a cybercriminal in training. Alan Paller sees him as the future of America’s national security.