With the recent hiring of Steve Kondik, popularly known as Cyanogen, as a software developer for Samsung, choosing a career path in hacking may just have its rewards after-all.
For those that indulge in unauthorized Android Operating System modification (Cooked Roms), the name Cyanogen should be very familiar. He has now joined the league of “bad” hackers gone good. Working for a big corporation like Samsung is a dream for most people and enough motivation to amass academic qualifications and certificates. But for a college dropout, with no other academic qualification to offer Samsung, Cyanogen sure is having it good. Who says hacking does not pay?
He has now joined the “enviable” list of academically unqualified, mostly young hackers now offering their skills to big corporations or legit organizations. This list includes the following;
1. George Hotz is a 21 year old high school graduate who became famous for his hacking exploits on the Sony Playstation and the subsequent court action. He is now an employee of Facebook.
2. Peter Hajas, creator of IOS jailbreak app, MobileNotifier. He is now an intern with Apple and a contributor to the upcoming Apple Operating System, IOS 5.
3. Johnny Chung Lee, Nintendo Wiimote hacker, was employed by Microsoft but was later poached by Google.
4. Ashley Towns, creator of the first ever iPhone worm, was employed by an Australian app developing firm, Monogeneration.
5. 14 year old school boy and Microsoft XBox hacker, simply known as Jake, has been employed by Microsoft.
6. In 2000, Michael Calce aka Mafiaboy knocked Yahoo, EBay, CNN, Amazon and Dell offline. He now works a security consultant.
7. Owen Thor Walker aka aKill, ringleader of an International hacking group, was hired by Telstra, an Australian Telecommunications company, to work in its security division.
8. Robert Tappan Morris, creator of the first Internet worm in 1988 now teaches Computer Science in MIT.
9. Chris Putnam, Georgia Southern University dropout and creator of a Facebook worm, now works as an Engineer with facebook.
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