Hacker

Mismatch: The Growing Gulf Between Men and Women, by Andrew Hacker. Scribner. 240 pages. $25. In the modern age, we have publishing's answer to the infomercial, and Mismatch seems to be a perfect example of this new development. The authors of these books try to sell you information you already know, and they do so with a cynical interest in market share that is simply breathtaking. Academics write these books in a language that is distinguished by its slipperiness and the use of the passive voice, along with a smarmy condescension to the reader.

A Columbia company that pioneered a widely used technology for detecting computer hackers has received $11 million in venture capital, its second round of financing during the past year. Sourcefire Inc. received the latest infusion from a group led by New Enterprise Associates, a major venture firm in Baltimore, which invested about $6 million. Other investors included Sierra Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures and Core Capital Partners, all of which had earlier stakes in Sourcefire. Sourcefire sells software based on a technology called Snort that was created by Martin Roesch, the company's founder and chief technology officer.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For a couple of days in December, someone was auctioning Sony camcorders from Kevin Pilgrim's eBay account. But the auctioneer wasn't Pilgrim, who lives in Raytown, Mo. More than two dozen online bargain hunters agreed to pay $605 apiece, in some cases wiring money to Germany. But there were no camcorders. The two-day auction was a fraud. While bidders got ripped off, the bad guys got away. The scammers who hacked into Pilgrim's eBay account to woo unsuspecting bidders did their dirty work before eBay could shut down his account.

EVERY PLAYER knew it had to happen: a really bad day for Tiger. His 81 last weekend brought a knowing smile to the faces of proud hackers, the Sunday players who marvel at Tiger Woods' consistency, his strength, his elegance and equanimity. Marveled at them - and knew they wouldn't always be enough. It wasn't gloating about Tiger's vulnerability, but an affirmation of the maddening game. The world's best player had come back to earth during the third round of the British Open. He shot 81, putting himself out of contention for the championship.

A Columbia company that invented what it calls the world's most widely deployed technology to detect computer hackers announced yesterday that it received $7.6 million in venture capital to develop and market a commercial version of its product. Sourcefire, a 30-employee, privately held company, uses Snort, a detection technology developed by the company's founder, Martin Roesch. Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, network security was a major concern, exacerbated by outbreaks of computer viruses.

In a world where viruses and stealth programs abound, protecting your computer from nasty bugs that float around the Internet and hackers on the prowl couldn't be more important. A virus will crash an evening of writing letters or playing games faster than you can call for help. And hackers can turn your PC into an electronic "zombie" that silently attacks other computers on the Internet by flooding them with bogus traffic until they shut down. No one need go without protection because solutions abound - programs that will not only protect you from viruses and hackers but also shield your privacy on the Internet.

FREDONIA, Ariz. - Ranger Benn Pikyakit is writing the text for displays at a new museum being created at Pipe Spring National Monument. He has to research history on university Web sites, then clear the text with Kaibab Paiute tribal leaders and his supervisors at the National Park Service. Until last month, the task was as easy as pecking away at his office computer. Then, Pikyakit was cast back into the pre-Internet age, thanks to a 5-year-old lawsuit, which was helped along by a court-appointed hacker.

When he worked for Hewlett-Packard, Jay Philbrook spent his time working on printed circuit boards and writing programs to test DSL systems. Then he moved to a more exciting job, in an out-of-the-way Hunt Valley office cubicle surrounded by state-of-the-art computer hardware, where he studies arcane assembly-language subroutines, pores over displays of hexadecimal printouts, and occasionally cries out in triumph. "What I've done here is to make a code that will enable you to warp from one place to another, while also enabling you to throw fireballs at the enemy," the 25-year-old programmer boasts.

Deon Carter, the West Baltimore man who tried to evade arrest for first-degree murder by dressing as a woman and later stabbed a sheriff's deputy with the deputy's key after being convicted, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with a chance for parole. Prosecutor Frank G. Rangoussis had argued that Carter, 20, of the 1500 block of Mountmor Court, was too dangerous and anti-social to ever be freed. The defense said he was lead-poisoned and was neglected by his drug-addicted mother, and public defender Jill Trivas urged that he be given a "glimmer of hope."

A 42-year-old Columbia man who helped create the computer network used by a Canton high-tech firm admitted in federal court yesterday to damaging the network a few months after he was fired. Scott W. Rogers, a former software engineer for SkyNetWEB, pleaded guilty before Senior Judge Herbert N. Maletz, in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, to intentionally damaging the software used by the Web-hosting firm. Rogers, who was fired from SkyNetWEB in February, admitted he infiltrated the company's network twice in May without authorization and shut down access to at least one of its customers, according to a plea agreement submitted to Maletz yesterday by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Welsh.