Certified Anti-Hacker

I just read this article in TheStar today that UniTAR (a local private university) graduates will soon be certified as anti-hacker. According to the article, “Information technology students at University Tun Abdul Razak (Unitar) can soon be certified to counter hackers.Those taking the Bachelor of Information Systems (Hons) and Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons) at Unitar may graduate with the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification from the E-Commerce Consultants (EC) International Council after completing their course.”

My impression is that they are selling snake oil. There is no way that you can certify someone as having the necessary skills to counter hackers, unless you consider unplugging your computer from the network and powering it off as such a skill (actually, there are even ways to hack a computer that is turned off and unplugged from the network). Even with my mad geek skills in computers, I would not dare make such claims.

Don’t believe anything that you think you know about hacking. Hacking is neither as exciting nor as glamourous as the movies make them to be. Most kids have no idea what it actually takes to be a hacker and think it’s all cool. Hacking is a lonely journey with a lot of hard, tedious and rigourous work. There is a lot of heartbreak and failure involved but when you do succeed, the high can be extremely intoxicating.

Anyway, if it is something that can help the graduates sell themselves better and find a job in these tough times, I am all for it. However, it would be silly for the graduates to think that potential employers will believe for a single second that you can counter hackers effectively, except maybe doctors who have been overdosing on a little too much Hollywood.