上周六，广东东软信息技术学院(NINT)举办了第四届网络攻防大赛。本次大赛使得40多名学生能够正确利用他们所掌握的黑客技能，参赛者也可以通过竞赛赚到一些零花钱。获胜小组得到5000元的奖金。 The cyber security competition last Saturday was the fourth sponsored by the Neusoft Institute of Information Technology (NINT) in Guangdong. It gave more than 40 students a chance to put their hacking skills to good use and to earn a little pocket money in the process. The winning team received 5,000 yuan。

　　在中国，对于那些业余时间喜欢练习编程技能，不时来点小恶作剧的同学们来说，校园就是他们的根据地。在网络论坛上，他们齐聚一堂，分享诀窍；筹划着自己的网络安全事业——或“红客”，或“黑客”。 Chinese campuses are home to many students who spend free time exercising their programming skills and, every now and then, getting into a little mischief. They gather in online forums, share tricks of the trade, and prepare themselves for a career in cyber security – either as a "good guy", or as a "bad guy"。

　　东软信息技术学院大一学生，17岁的李广恩认为自己是一位“红客”。在比赛中，他和其他组员在攻击竞争对手的网络之前，就已迅速地在自己的服务器上建立起防火墙。要找出所有的程序缺陷，修复所有的漏洞，并修改相应的密码。 Li Guang'en, a 17-year-old freshman at NINT, supposes he is one of the good guys. During the competition, he and his teammates raced to build a firewall on their server before attacking their competitors. Every bug had to be fixed. Every crack sealed. Passwords had to be rewritten。

　　“一秒钟的耽搁都会导致全盘皆输，”李广恩在赛后说。 "A one-second delay can lead to complete failure," said Li afterward。

　　相比之下，中山火炬职业技术学院大三学生，19岁的黄杰华展示出他娴熟的黑客技能。他从黑客网站上下载了软件，并利用它们攻击其他对手的网络。“黑客工具如此之多，为了物尽其用，你需要建立一个软件包，”他说。 Meanwhile, Huang Jiehua, a 19-year-old junior at Zhongshan Torch Polytechnic, showed that he was quite adept at being a hacker. He downloaded software from hacker websites and turned it on his team's competitors. "There are so many tools that one needs to have a package to make the best use of them," said Huang。

　　社区生涯 Community life

　　很多学生从未在正式比赛中施展他们的技能。英雄无用武之地，他们只好跑到校园服务器，有时甚至是一些公司及政府的服务器上大展拳脚。 Many students never get to exercise their skills in a formal competition. Instead, they do so on campus servers and, sometimes, on corporate and government ones。

　　19岁的彭鹏是浙江某高校大三学生。他本人是“中国隐士黑客联盟”( 一个由编程爱好者组成的，协作紧密的网络社区)成员之一。他每天都需要登陆该论坛，通过邮件或QQ信息获得上级的指令。 Peng Peng, a 19-year-old junior at a university in Zhejiang, is a member of the "Chinese Recluse Hacker Union", a close-knit online community of programmers. He needs to log into the forum everyday and get assignments from leaders through e-mail or QQ messages。

　　“有时候工作很简单，比如破解一款网络游戏，或者为一款聊天软件添加更多的功能，”彭鹏说。“但有些时候，上级指派我们去攻击服务器。” "Sometimes it is simple, like decoding a computer game, or adding more functions to a piece of chat software," said Peng. "But sometimes we are ordered to attack a server."

　　当接到这样的指令时，他迅速安装黑客软件，并协同其他小组成员们一起发起攻击。这些成员都是一些他从未谋面的网民，当然这些行动几乎是无偿的。 When he receives such an order, he quickly loads attack software and works together with his teammates – netizens he has never met in the real world, and there's hardly any money involved。

　　相比之下，为了施展自己的编程技能，李广恩担任了三年多的服务器管理员。“我的服务器被黑客攻击了几次，所以我必须要知道怎样防止黑客入侵，”他说。 Li, meanwhile, has exercised his programming skills by managing a server for more than three years. "My server was attacked by hackers several times, so I have had to learn how to deal with these invasions," Li said。

　　就业机会 Career opportunities

　　由于网络安全在政府及商务层面上的重要性日益突出，他们中有许多人在毕业后都将从事这一领域的工作。例如，上届东软信息技术学院网络攻防大赛结束后，两位冠军选手都就职于国家安全部门。 Thanks to the growing importance of cyber security, both at the government and commercial level, many of these students will find work in the field upon graduation. For instance, after last year's cyber security competition at NINT, two of the top competitors landed jobs with the national security units。

　　一些人事代表及其他专家对本届选手们也是赞不绝口。“他们的表现比我们预想的要好，”一位海南省国家安全官员表示。“他们熟练地操作着系统，快速地找到系统漏洞，泰然自若地直面挑战。” HR reps and other experts also sang the praises of this year's competitors. "They performed better than we expected," said a Hainan national security officer. "They were familiar with the operation system, smart when looking for leaks, and calm when facing tight challenges."