tiger team n.
[U.S. military jargon] 1. Originally, a team (of sneakers) 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 crackers, 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.