According to The Times newspaper, MI5 is linking up with the SANS Institute to stage a series of online hacker tests that will require would-be anti-hackers to show their prowess by demonstrating an ability to fend off hacker attacks, find passwords on a computer and hack websites.

The winners of this stage - the best hacker performers - will then allowed to have a shot at earning six-figure salaries in the public sector as 'hackers'.

The paper quotes Judy Baker - a security consultant and the person in charge of getting companies to participate in the hacker project - as saying that both governmental authorities and private firms need "more and better security experts to protect intellectual property and business continuity and keep private communications private".

The winners of the British hacker competition will then take courses at the SANS Institute and have a raft of security experts as their mentors.

Infosecurity notes that the hacker talent competition bears an uncanny resemblance to the US government programme announced in the summer.

In the US Cyber Challenge the US government teamed up with SANS Institute to discover 10 000 young Americans who can become cyber security experts for the military, the secret service, private firms, or researchers.

Under the scheme the US Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will be hiring 1000 new experts over the next few years.