Every year millions, perhaps billions of dollars are lost by the release into the web of computer viruses devised by clever technically informed but socially immature people. They invent fascinating ways to get around safety devices or to take advantage of the inadequacies of universally used software. Although some of this damage is done by basically nasty people, a good deal of it is done by people who are not necessarily antisocial, merely wanting to demonstrate their technical capabilities. But there is no other way to demonstrate their cleverness than by releasing these disruptive devices into the general web.If a secondary web were created to simulate the present web but was insulated from the general web to provide a testing ground for innovative software and programmers were encouraged to test their software there with awards and prizes and publicity to outstanding creations which might damage the general web if generally released but demonstrated the creator’s capabilities the public might gain some safety. A good deal of damaging software might be diverted from the general web to save a good deal of public expense. And countermeasures could be tested there to counteract viruses. Any software entered in the public web would automatically be disqualified from recognition and awards in the testing web aside from being criminally prosecuted. That way innovators could get public recognition for their cleverness without doing damage.An item on http://science.slashdot.org/ today indicated that there is a good chance that there may arise a class of biohackers that could create amateur biological viruses which might devastate the world with unstoppable diseases if uncontrolled. A system to contain this possibility similar to the proposal about computer viruses might help to insure the health of the world against these dangerous innovations.
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Check out Science Olympiad. I was involved when I was in high school.
Perhaps something is needed for an older age bracket, though...
I'd love to see something like this, but unless it was very high profile (i.e., headline news stories, prime time TV, etc.) it probably wouldn't remove the main motivation of these black-hat hackers: The "prestige" of sorts that they gain from their exploits.
Note that these hackers are often just people who want to be noticed and respected. They just have a twisted way of achieving their goals.
I assume that a vast proportion of the financial loss is due to organized professional hackers who don't necessarily want public exposure. They want money, or they want to disrupt society. Most of these people are not rule-followers and will avoid an organized area where rules can be "broken" (but not really) like the plague. (However, I do think the idea of setting up a dummy internet has merit and may have other interesting uses.)
Creating viruses and disrupting legitimate internet commerce is the electronic equivalent to vandalism. A number of years ago, some liberal-minded celebrities commissioned some urban gang members to apply their artistictalents on traditional art media instead of vehicles and buildings. The exercise produced few examples of promising art, and the project died quietly, and gang "tagging" is still a problem.
Giving the little criminals a new playground isn't going to stop them from being little criminals.