Cracking The Code

The dress code is business casual--no jeans allowed, not to mention pierced noses. It's the first day of class--hacking class--and the instructors, smartly attired in matching corporate polo shirts, point at screens full of code and step-by-step directions on how to hack a host computer. "Get this: No username, no password, and we're connected," says one. "I'm starting to get tingles. They're going to be toast pretty quick." Geekspeak, at least, is still de rigueur.

In the world of corporate espionage, a company's host computer is the mother lode, which means that protecting it is vital. That's the goal of Extreme...