Researchers wishing to use to New York-based Pink Balloon Safety have to finish an uncommon technical interview as a part of their software course
Researchers wishing to use to New York-based Pink Balloon Safety have to finish an uncommon technical interview as a part of their software course of: unlocking a tough drive containing crypto.
In keeping with a report from Enterprise Insider, Pink Balloon sends the laborious drives to sure candidates for cybersecurity analysis positions on the agency. Anybody who has the “the talents and keenness” to crack the encryption would have the ability to declare 0.1337 Bitcoin (BTC), or roughly $4,800 on the time of publication. Candidates who’re in a position to entry the cash are informed to buy a ticket to New York Metropolis for the subsequent step.
“We’re one of many few firms on this planet that do that, exterior of varied intelligence companies,” mentioned Pink Balloon CEO Ang Cui. “We’re a small firm, we’re in search of a really area of interest sort of safety particular person, and we do not have the huge quantity of human vitality to waste on screening by each single resume.”
Cui mentioned that the cybersecurity agency despatched the take a look at packages to nearly each applicant, however the success price was roughly 1%. Pink Balloon at present has 29 staff, 6 of whom have reportedly joined within the final 12 months.
He added:
“If I ship out 150 to 200 kilos of laborious drives [with Bitcoin], I’ll sometimes get again one human workforce member. It is a worthy funding.”
Based in 2011, the agency has apparently taken this distinctive strategy to technical interviews for a while. At the least one Crypto Twitter person claimed to have obtained comparable directions to retrieve Bitcoin 5 years in the past, whereas others identified Pink Balloon had challenged programmers to unlock laborious drives with crypto as a part of the Defcon hackers’ convention in 2017:
OK, this Pink Balloon problem is significantly cool!
Get a Arduous Drive to reverse Bitcoin from (firmware) Saturday by the pool.#defcon pic.twitter.com/Z99igaDxcm
— Mudge (@dotMudge) July 19, 2017