ALBANY, N.Y. -- Inside office space on the 4th floor of a downtown Albany building, several people work feverishly trying to hack into an organization. Their goal was to break into a system and uncover as many weaknesses as they can.
The mission was a success.
"We get paid to break security. I love it," said Tyler Wrightson, Leet Systems founder.
What Leet Systems in Albany does is legal. In fact, they're given permission to do it.
"It's the Wild Wild West and it's a gold rush," Wrightson said. "There's far too many people making a ridiculous amount of money illegally doing the things that we're doing and we want to see that changed."
Leet Systems was started three years ago. The IT security company gets paid by companies to hack into their servers to make sure they're fully protected. Wrightson called it going on the offensive.
"Clearly there's a problem with hackers and they need our expertise. They need us to come in and help us identify these weaknesses so that they can actually fix them and prevent the threats, the real attackers out there," said Wrightson.
Wrightson said no matter the company, organization, even government agency, Leet Systems always finds weaknesses.
"If a company picks up the phone and calls us and says, "We want to know what a real world hacker would do. Go," We have a 100 percent success rate. We don't fail," he said.
According to its philosophy, failing is not an option for Leet Systems. Every day, it keeps in mind a quote from Chinese general Sun Tzu.
“'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.' If organizations are not taking an offensive look at their organization then they're missing out and according to Sun Tzu, they're going to lose half their battles," Wrightson said.
No battle will be lost as long as the good guys get there first.
Leet Systems will host a hacker convention next year at the new Albany Capital Center. Details will be released at a later date.