Can you access protected networks without breaking a sweat? Does just thinking about security exploits get you hot and bothered? Are "spoofing" and "packet sniffing" part of your regular vocabulary? If you answered "Yes" to those questions, and you can prove your hacking prowess at the upcoming DEFCON convention, you may just wind up getting a job offer (and a pension plan) from government agencies like the NSA.

Setting sail on the Lulz Boat with a of glass of wine in one hand and a wide-brimmed top hat protecting him from the harmful UV rays, a hacker might actually start to believe that life is all laffs and SQL injections. Here's a shocker: things aren't quite so sunny in the slam, jackass. British police are the ones lulzing in the Shetland Isles after arresting a 19-year-old man they say is Topiary, the smarmy LulzSec hacker responsible for the group's satirical Tweets.

Another day, another hacking story. If you thought the recent disbanding of LulzSec meant an end to the daily exploit updates, you thought wrong; plenty of other groups are wrangling for Lulzsec's crown as king of the headache-causing chuckleheads. Today's facepalm-inducing report involves a group called Inj3ct0r Team, who claim to have sneaked into a backup NATO server while waving the flag of Operation AntiSec, an anti-security movement popularized by LulzSec and Anonymous.