[U.S. military jargon]
1. Originally, a team (of {sneaker}s) whose purpose is to penetrate
security, and thus test security measures. These people are paid
professionals who do hacker-type tricks, e.g., leave cardboard signs
saying "bomb" in critical defense installations, hand-lettered notes
saying "Your codebooks have been stolen" (they usually haven't been)
inside safes, etc. After a successful penetration, some high-ranking
security type shows up the next morning for a `security review' and
finds the sign, note, etc., and all hell breaks loose. Serious
successes of tiger teams sometimes lead to early retirement for base
commanders and security officers (see the {patch} entry for an
example).
2. Recently, and more generally, any official inspection team or
special {firefighting} group called in to look at a problem.
A subset of tiger teams are professional {cracker}s, testing the
security of military computer installations by attempting remote
attacks via networks or supposedly `secure' comm channels. Some of
their escapades, if declassified, would probably rank among the
greatest hacks of all times. The term has been adopted in commercial
computer-security circles in this more specific sense.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {hacker ethic}{patch}{sneaker}{social engineering}]