The country is looking for a few good ... high school hackers?

According to Forbes, the military-funded Cyber Challenge is offering three new contests aimed at high school and college students to test their skills in attacking and defending digital targets, stealing data and tracing how others have stolen it.

The Air Force's so-called Cyber Patriot competition will focus on network defense; the Department of Defense's Digital Forensics Challenge will task students with problems like tracing digital intrusions and reconstructing incomplete data sources; and the SANS Institute's Network Attack Competition will challenge students to find and exploit vulnerabilities in software, compromise enemy systems and steal data.

According to the article,

"Talented entrants would be recruited for cyber training camps planned for summer 2010, nonprofit camps run by the military and funded in part by private companies, or internships at agencies including the National Security Agency, the Department of Energy or Carnegie Mellon's Computer Emergency Response Team."

As internetnews.com blogger Alex Goldman points out, "the program addresses real needs," especially in light of the recent electrical grid breach.