By CHRISTOPHER DREW and JOHN MARKOFF, NY Times
MELBOURNE, Fla. — The government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts.
Computers, indispensable in peace, are becoming ever more important in political conflicts and open warfare. This series examines the growing use of computer power as a weapon.
The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is enabling the companies to attract top young talent that once would have gone to Silicon Valley. And the race to develop weapons that defend against, or initiate, computer attacks has given rise to thousands of “hacker soldiers” within the Pentagon who can blend the new capabilities into the nation’s war planning.
Nearly all of the largest military companies — including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.
Read more here: Cyberwar – Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for U.S. – Series – NYTimes.com.
