tiger team

(US military jargon) 1. Originally, a team 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 defence

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"

communication 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.

[Jargon File]