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Shameless plug to follow... Much of the technology here was invented by Brendan and others at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, which is where I work. We have been very

Shameless plug to follow... Much of the technology here was invented by Brendan and others at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, which is where I work. We have been very lucky to have Brendan join us for a few summers while he was completing his PhD at Georgia Tech and he gave a great showing at RECON. Brilliant guy. If you're interested in reverse engineering his most recent papers are essential reading: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/grads/b/brendan http://www.cc.gatech.edu/grads/b/brendan. In addition to some of the automated RE work, we've also got multi-million dollar research efforts hacking the Linux kernel and reverse engineering/analyzing embedded systems. Lot's of fun stuff. You get to work on really exciting problems and you'll have the funding and the skilled coworkers you need to execute successfully. If you find this type of stuff exciting, you should drop me a line at sally@ll.mit.edu. We're always hiring^. We've got great benefits too, like a pension, unlimited sick leave, 13 holidays, 20 vacation days, and free classes at MIT. ^One caveat is that because of how we are funded, we are only able to employ US citizens.

reitanqild 12y ago
> One caveat is that because of how we are funded, we are only able to employ US citizens. Just wanted to say thank you: just being aware of limitations like this and letting people know up front makes it a whole less annoying. Also the circumstances makes it understandable.
- test_account_1 12y ago
  I don't understand why being funded has anything to do of only hiring US citizens.
  - lsaferite 12y ago
    I think maybe you misunderstood the statement. Not funded as in "my startup just got funded." More like, "we are funded by US government grants that preclude us from hiring aliens." Just my guess.
  - KMag 12y ago
    MIT Lincoln Labs is funded by the department of defense. They do a lot of classified work, and may have large areas that are off-limits to non-US citizens. I had a Summer internship at a similar institution, where my work wasn't classified, but was sensitive enough and close enough to classified work that only US citizens were allowed past the keypad lock to my desk area.
  - sqrt17 12y ago
    From Wikipedia: Since MIT Lincoln Laboratory's establishment, the scope of the problems has broadened from the initial emphasis on air defense to include programs in space surveillance, missile defense, surface surveillance and object identification, communications, homeland protection, high-performance computing, air traffic control, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Lincoln Laboratory conducts research and development pertinent to national security on behalf of the military services, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and other government agencies. Projects focus on the development and prototyping of new technologies and capabilities. Program activities extend from fundamental investigations, through simulation and analysis, to design and field testing of prototype systems. Emphasis is placed on transitioning technology to industry. Essentially, the Lincoln Lab is one of several labs that are part of a strategy to make best use of creative people (who can think up things, but don't necessarily want to productize/weaponize them), industry (who can productize/weaponize things, but don't want to be part of a war effort) and military. To see why they would not hire non-US citizens, consider the first author of the "Steal this Movie" paper, who now works at a Chinese university (presumably on similar problems to the ones that people in LL and at UCSB are tackling).
    - vfclists 12y ago
      Interesting. The DoD funds research which enables them to hack into other systems, which means devices and our communications, and in return we get the tools to hack DRM and everything else. Not a bad trade.
AlyssaRowan 12y ago
That's lovely - but that sounds kinda like what those who work with the NSA TAO say when they want to recruit independent contractors to find 0days, and we now know that many of those are not fully aware of what happened to their work. Could you comment on whether your participants are in any way, directly or indirectly, working to find vulnerabilities for the NSA to exploit, to your knowledge?

reitanqild 12y ago

> One caveat is that because of how we are funded, we are only able to employ US citizens. Just wanted to say thank you: just being aware of limitations like this and letting people know up front makes it a whole less annoying. Also the circumstances makes it understandable.

test_account_1 12y ago
I don't understand why being funded has anything to do of only hiring US citizens.
- lsaferite 12y ago
  I think maybe you misunderstood the statement. Not funded as in "my startup just got funded." More like, "we are funded by US government grants that preclude us from hiring aliens." Just my guess.
- KMag 12y ago
  MIT Lincoln Labs is funded by the department of defense. They do a lot of classified work, and may have large areas that are off-limits to non-US citizens. I had a Summer internship at a similar institution, where my work wasn't classified, but was sensitive enough and close enough to classified work that only US citizens were allowed past the keypad lock to my desk area.
- sqrt17 12y ago
  From Wikipedia: Since MIT Lincoln Laboratory's establishment, the scope of the problems has broadened from the initial emphasis on air defense to include programs in space surveillance, missile defense, surface surveillance and object identification, communications, homeland protection, high-performance computing, air traffic control, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Lincoln Laboratory conducts research and development pertinent to national security on behalf of the military services, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and other government agencies. Projects focus on the development and prototyping of new technologies and capabilities. Program activities extend from fundamental investigations, through simulation and analysis, to design and field testing of prototype systems. Emphasis is placed on transitioning technology to industry. Essentially, the Lincoln Lab is one of several labs that are part of a strategy to make best use of creative people (who can think up things, but don't necessarily want to productize/weaponize them), industry (who can productize/weaponize things, but don't want to be part of a war effort) and military. To see why they would not hire non-US citizens, consider the first author of the "Steal this Movie" paper, who now works at a Chinese university (presumably on similar problems to the ones that people in LL and at UCSB are tackling).
  - vfclists 12y ago
    Interesting. The DoD funds research which enables them to hack into other systems, which means devices and our communications, and in return we get the tools to hack DRM and everything else. Not a bad trade.

AlyssaRowan 12y ago

That's lovely - but that sounds kinda like what those who work with the NSA TAO say when they want to recruit independent contractors to find 0days, and we now know that many of those are not fully aware of what happened to their work. Could you comment on whether your participants are in any way, directly or indirectly, working to find vulnerabilities for the NSA to exploit, to your knowledge?