Hacking School

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-hackers-school-defcon-kids.html

I guess this would be considered academia.

I think personally I would have liked to learn how to hack, not to actually do malicious stuff, but (as was noted in the article) to protect myself when I notice something of a similar degree, and to know what to do when I see it. It might also be fun to tinker with your own computer's settings to see what you can do here and there, although this is of course second nature to security.