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tiger team: n. [U.S. military jargon] 1. Originally, a team (of sneakers) whose
purpose is to penetrate security, and thus test security measures. These
people are paid professionals who do hacker-type tricks, e.g., leave
cardboard signs saying “bomb” in critical defense
installations, hand-lettered notes saying “Your codebooks have been
stolen” (they usually haven't been) inside safes, etc. After a
successful penetration, some high-ranking security type shows up the next
morning for a ‘security review’ and finds the sign, note, etc.,
and all hell breaks loose. Serious successes of tiger teams sometimes lead
to early retirement for base commanders and security officers (see the
patch entry for an example). 2. Recently, and more generally, any official inspection team or
special firefighting group called in to look at a
problem. A subset of tiger teams are professional
crackers, testing the security of military computer
installations by attempting remote attacks via networks or supposedly
‘secure’ comm channels. Some of their escapades, if
declassified, would probably rank among the greatest hacks of all times.
The term has been adopted in commercial computer-security circles in this
more specific sense.
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