The course in computer hacking at the University of Abertay
Get on the website of a budget airline to book yourself a holiday and, while you are at it, fool around with the site code so that you can pick your own price. For tomorrow, show your workings. That is the kind of homework students on a new MSc in ethical hacking at Dundee's University of Abertay might be set. Although, of course, the website they use won't be a real one but a cod version for in-house use set up by a tutor - or even a fellow postgrad.
Why teach these quite clearly criminal skills? Surely they could be misused? When the security guard at the university car park announces "We have been expecting you", before opening the gate, it is tempting to imagine that the place is full of James Bond-style villains in training for a life of computer crime.
But Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, head of the school of computing and creative technologies, likens teaching hacking to teaching police students how drug dealers operate or soldiers about the techniques used by terrorists - a vital part of their training. He argues that most of Britain's education institutions - which don't teach hacking - are way behind the curve on the growth of computer crime.
Crime wave
Universities are not producing people with the right skills to help businesses to protect themselves from an electronic crime wave. "If we were getting this right, there wouldn't be such a problem out there," he says. He is angry that the British Computer Society (BCS) has not yet accredited either the new MSc, which started this month, or the BSc in ethical hacking, which will produce its first crop of graduates this summer. Both courses are firsts in the UK. How would he describe their attitude? "I think it is bollocks," he says.
The attitude of the BCS, which has also failed to recognise Abertay's courses in computer gaming, contributes to the university's ranking in league tables, where it usually comes near the bottom in computing. But it comes near the top in "environmental science", where it has got accreditation for some unusual courses. MacKinnon claims the problem is that the BCS does not recognise the term "ethical hacking", preferring "computer security".
However, he defends the radical and creative approach Abertay is taking on this subject. He argues that most computer security modules are pedestrian, focusing on technology such as firewalls and password setting, which could be cracked by a 14-year-old in Kansas or an organised crime ring in Russia in half an hour. Many computer systems in use by small businesses and multimillion-pound ones have security that MacKinnon describes as "a joke".
As he sees it, virtual suitcases full of money are being left on the side of the electronic superhighway. He says "billions of dollars" a year are being written off as bad debt while the fact that they have been stolen by computer criminals is kept quiet. "The amount of money being lost to computer crime is massively under-reported. Companies don't want to draw attention to it, so they write it off as bad debt."
He says teaching students advanced hacking techniques on the MSc is justified because it is a precursor to being able to think creatively about protecting systems. "There is more to security than keeping attackers out," MacKinnon points out. "Take something called Soap. That pretends it is a web message, and most firewalls will let it through. Now that was devised by Microsoft and sold as part of its package. It is very, very easy to do this.
"Ethical hacking is about understanding how the system is vulnerable and making it resilient to attack in the same way a body is resistant to infection. It would be like having a building where if someone broke in, it would automatically hide all the valuables."
Students able to do this will surely be in high demand. Abertay has close links with members of the local business community, who have had input into the new course, and MacKinnon predicts that the first graduates from the new MSc will be able to secure starting salaries of around £55,000 because businesses are "crying out" for their skills.
That is, of course, if the students have kept their noses clean - they are closely monitored and any evidence that they have tried their new skills in the real world would lead to instant dismissal and no references. So far, that hasn't happened.
Natalie Coull, a lecturer, says: "We monitor them very closely, particularly in the early part of the course. The more advanced techniques are taught later on. But the students are doing this because they want to get good jobs. They are also motivated by fighting computer crime. Some of them are really quite evangelical about it."
Immense upset
Alec Gray, a student, does not fit the typical model of a computer geek. A gruffly spoken Dundonian aged 52, he has been working with computers since the days of punch cards and green screens. Gray used to have a computer-repair shop. "It is sheer vandalism," he says of computer crime. "Just about every week I would have to say to someone, get in touch with your bank, all your accounts are compromised. The upset and disruption that was caused to people was immense. If I can save a few people from these idiots then I will be happy."
Jennifer Higgles, 23, also feels strongly about her chosen path. Working on a helpline for a bank, she said she fielded dozens of calls from people in this predicament. "I had a bride phone up on her wedding day. £10,000 was missing from her bank account. She was due to go on her honeymoon and she had no money. It was really upsetting and stressful for her, although the bank did refund the money."
Graeme Stevens is on the MSc after doing a BA hons in IT some years ago. He has been working for a school and running its website. He found the system was constantly under attack from "script kiddies" - students who wanted to break into their school computer network for fun, out of the same sort of impulse that drives children to look over high walls. "They were just being kids. Whatever information was put on the system, they wanted to break in and look at it.
"If you have a computer in your house or your school that is connected to the internet, it is like having a door that is open. If you don't guard that door, then pretty much anyone can come in."
A spokesperson for the BCS denied MacKinnon's assertion that the organisation did not accept the term "ethical hacking". She said: "We are only able to assess a course once we've seen outputs such as exam papers, coursework and graduate achievement. Once a course has been running for sufficient time, an institution can always ask for accreditation to be backdated to the first intake of students, if appropriate, and we are always more than happy to consider such requests. We are due to visit the university in the near future."