In Defense of Black Hat and Defcon

Via CNet.com -

I'm also glad that the mainstream media is covering Black Hat and Defcon. The Washington Post came last year and returned this year. The same with USA Today. But I'm really offended that NBC would view the conference as an easy way to spot a criminal hacker in the act or, as it was suggested to Black Hat organizers, as part of a story about companies hiring hackers to work for them.

Let's not misinform the people in Kansas with made-up stories, shall we? There are plenty of great stories to be had if you come to these conferences with an open mind and a willingness to learn what's being said and done. NBC should realize that the real criminals are not at Black Hat or Defcon; they're out making money in St. Petersburg, Russia; or in Guangdong province, China; or in Kansas. Maybe Dateline's Madigan should take her pinhole cameras there instead.

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The real bad guys aren't going up on stage or pinpointing true weaknesses of computer security to the public. They are stealing your money, running carder websites online, using your ID to open credit lines and paying teen virus writers to write bots or sneaky adware droppers...

Of course companies hire hackers...but I mean hackers in the real definition and not the media-spin negative definition. A hacker is someone who focuses on security mechanisms, plain and simple. Just as a Chef is a person who focuses on cooking food...no different.

Microsoft hired hackers to hack into Vista before it was released...to make it more secure for the public. The government uses red teams of hackers to test the security of our national infrastructure and to protect us from cyber and physical invasion. Anti-virus companies employ hackers which are experts at malicious code so that they can write anti-virus sigurature and protect the computer systems of the general public. Hardware hackers pick locks and present their techniques to lock manufacturers, enabling them to build better locks. And on and on and on..

Perhaps NBC should go to Nigeria, hang out in an internet cafe for a while....talk about biting the hand that feeds you.