'Ethical hackers' safeguard data

Behind a plain beige door on the 17th floor of a bland office building in suburban Toronto, six hackers spend their days snooping on some of the biggest and most secretive companies in Canada. Their job is to break into the cellphones, Palm Pilots and personal computers of the company executives and worm out the deepest corporate secrets. How long does it take? "We've done it in 30 minutes," said Victor Keong, a partner in the security services department of giant accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.

What do they find? Credit card numbers, bank machine PINs and a wealth of top-secret passwords that give Mr. Keong and his team a wide-open road into the depths of the clients' most secure computers.

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