University’s Cyber Corps program trains America’s hacker spies of the future

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta hasn’t pulled any punches when describing the threat that attacks from the internet could pose to America — just last month, he warned of the possibility of a “cyber Pearl Harbor” that could “paralyze the nation.” It’s in this climate that the University of Tulsa is running a program called the Cyber Corps, the subject of a report from the LA Times. The two-year program aims to train students in the ways of 21st century espionage, from hacking networks and writing viruses to planting tracking devices and rifling through trash, and most graduates go on to work for the CIA or NSA. Cyber Corps was founded in 1998, but it may be an idea whose time has come.