那些觉得自己是香饽饽的黑客们，现在美国国家安全局有一个挑战性任务给你们了。想要证明自己的实力，就来攻克这些“地球上最难的难题”吧。
　　为了打好这场对国家安全日益造成威胁的网络战争，美国政府急需大量电脑黑客技术人才，目前该类人才严重短缺。
　　因此，多个美国联邦政府机构——国防部、国土安全部、美国宇航局、国家安全局将参加本周在拉斯维加斯举办的名为“防御态势”（Defcon）的年度黑客大会。入场费150美元，只收现金，不收信用卡、不需注册、不记名。预计将吸引一万人到场。
　　美国国家安全局也在这群求贤若渴的机构之列。这家谍报机构在网络战争中扮演防御和进攻的双重角色，对对手进行电子窃听，保护装有绝密材料的美国计算机网络，这可是敌人一直虎视眈眈的目标。
　　国家安全局负责网络防御的信息保护理事会技术主管理查德•“迪奇”•乔治说：“我们现在寻找的是网络武士，而非火箭专家。”
　　他在一次访谈中告诉记者说：“这就是我们现在所面临的竞赛。我们需要把最优秀最聪明的人变成随时应战的网络武士。”
　　在9月30日截止的财政年度里，国家安全局将雇用1500人，明年还要新增1500人，他们中大多是网络专家。美国国家安全局位于马里兰州米德堡，其多达3万人员规模让包括中情局在内的其他情报机构相形见绌。
　　国家安全局还从事网络间谍和其他的攻击性活动，但他们几乎从不在公开场合提及。
　　而在这次黑客大会上，国家安全局和其他联邦政府机构将与企业争相物色黑客人才。
　　美国国家安全局需要网络安全专家来强化更新网络防卫，进行“渗透测试”来盘查安全漏洞，密切注意任何网络攻击的迹象。
　　尽管国家安全局正大力招兵买马，但乔治说这样的黑客技术人才仍然紧缺：“我们正竭力招募我们所需要的人才。”
　　The National Security Agency has a challenge for hackers who think they're hot stuff: prove it by working on the "hardest problems on Earth."
　　Computer hacker skills are in great demand in the US government to fight the cyber wars that pose a growing national security threat -- and they are in short supply.
　　For that very reason an alphabet soup of federal agencies -- DOD, DHS, NASA, NSA -- are descending on Las Vegas this week for Defcon, an annual hacker convention where the $150 entrance fee is cash only -- no registration, no credit cards, no names taken. Attendance is expected to top 10,000.
　　The National Security Agency is among the keen suitors. The spy agency plays both offense and defense in the cyber wars. It conducts electronic eavesdropping on adversaries and protects US computer networks that hold super secret material -- a prize target for America's enemies.
　　"Today it's cyber warriors that we're looking for, not rocket scientists," said Richard "Dickie" George, technical director of the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate, the agency's cyber-defense side.
　　"That's the race that we're in today. And we need the best and brightest to be ready to take on this cyber warrior status," he told reporters in an interview.
　　The NSA is hiring about 1,500 people in the fiscal year which ends Sept. 30 and another 1,500 next year, most of them cyber experts. With a workforce of just over 30,000, the Fort Meade, Maryland-based NSA dwarfs other intelligence agencies, including the CIA.
　　It also engages in cyber-spying and other offensive operations, something it rarely, if ever, discusses publicly.
　　But at Defcon, the NSA and other "Feds" will be competing with corporations looking for hacking talent too.
　　The NSA needs cyber security experts to harden networks, defend them with updates, do "penetration testing" to find security holes and watch for any signs of cyber attacks.
　　The NSA is expanding its fold of hackers, but George said there is a shortage of those skills. "We are straining to hire the people that we need."
　　Vocabulary:
　　alphabet soup: language which is extremely difficult to understand, especially because it contains many symbols or abbreviations 代号语言（因含有许多符号或缩略语等而难懂）
　　eavesdrop: to listen secretly to what other people are saying 偷听，窃听（其他人谈话）
　　dwarf: to make something seem small or unimportant compared with something else（使显得矮小；使相形见绌）
　　strain: 尽力；竭力；使劲

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