Jeff Baker's Insights on Ethical Hacking and Network Security

Jeff Baker hacks into corporate computer networks for fun - period. Baker, a 24-year-old systems programmer, is part of a group of computer experts who spend their free time trying to figure out potential Internet security threats to large networks. Over . . .

Jeff Baker hacks into corporate computer networks for fun - period. Baker, a 24-year-old systems programmer, is part of a group of computer experts who spend their free time trying to figure out potential Internet security threats to large networks. Over the last year, Baker's hobby has led him to technology security lapses at E*Trade, the Charles Schwab brokerage concern, Wells Fargo bank and the Critical Path e-mail service.

"It's fun in the same way chess is fun," Baker explained. "It's also productive. I look into these systems and find out more about how people are programming."

"Most other professionals have journals and conferences," Baker added. "We don't; we poke around other people's systems."

Baker is a member of a clan known as "gray-hat" hackers, who occupy the ethical territory between the malicious "black hats" and the "white hats," hired by companies to check their own systems' security.

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