Business & Tech
Wildwood's Charlie Miller Hacks Computers for a Living
He's known as an "ethical hacker" and he was recently profiled on KWMU's "St. Louis On the Air."
Charlie Miller of Wildwood gets to hack computers for a living. According to an interview of him on KWMU's morning talk show "St. Louis On the Air," Miller used to put his considerable computer skills to work as a security research specialist, for the National Security Agency.
Now works for Twitter (co-founded by St. Louis' Jack Dorsey). His job is to find vulnerabilities in computer systems that the "bad guys" — the non-"ethical" hackers — could exploit for their own gain or for ill-intentions.
For example, this story shows how Miller and a colleague hacked into the computer system of a 2010 Toyota Prius and 2010 Ford Escape. The article notes: "Once they take over the onboard computer, they can control anything from the radio to the brakes, they say."
While his job is to find vulnerabilities in computer systems, he says nothing is foolproof.
"It's scary but all you can do is hope for the best, prepare, back up your stuff, take precautions as much as you can and enjoy the technology," he told KWMU in the interview.
Visit KWMU's page about Miller here, where you can read more and listen to a recording of his interview with Don Marsh.
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