It is the stuff of IT lore -- a hacker is caught breaking into a company's systems and is given two options: Take a job with the company or face prosecution. But are such tactics still in use, or do malicious hackers now face nothing but a career dead end?

"It was a trend at one time, when there weren't a lot of security professionals who had experiences that didn't include brushes with law enforcement," IDC research manager for Internet security software Charles Kolodgy told NewsFactor.

Now, though, Kolodgy explained, companies have begun to work more often with sensitive data from financial firms or the government, so their staff are forbidden to have criminal backgrounds.

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