full-disclosure - Re: [Dailydave] Hacking software is lame -- try medical research...

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Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:30:17 -0400
From: Curt <tuigim@...il.com>
To: "Kristian Erik Hermansen" <kristian.hermansen@...il.com>
Cc: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk, dailydave@...ts.immunitysec.com
Subject: Re: [Dailydave] Hacking software is lame -- try
	medical research...

I notice that you didn't mention any rare disease that none of your
friends or relatives have.

Why is it that all of these "altruistic" people seem to never give a
crap until it happens to them?  Did Michael J Fox give one thin dime
to Parkinsons until he had it?  How about Christopher Reeves and
spinal injury/stem cell?

I'd much rather make my money, and donate to non-profit orgs that do
things that I am interested in.

--Curt

On 9/21/07, Kristian Erik Hermansen <kristian.hermansen@...il.com> wrote:
> Some interesting discussion came up on some security lists this week
> and it got me to thinking.  Yes, hacking software is lame.  Cool, so
> you found some vulnerabilities in some widely distributed application,
> service, or OS and it is patched just as quickly.  Why don't we spend
> our time and valuable energy researching cures for rare or popular
> diseases instead?  For instance, my brother (Jon Hermansen) has a very
> rare disease called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis.  It is also better
> known as LCH.  It can be identified as causing such further diseases
> as Diabetes Insipidus, which is also uncommon (not sugar diabetes).
> Have you heard of these diseases before?  Let me educate you…
>
> General Information:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langerhans_cell_histiocytosis
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_insipidus
>
> Seven Part Video Series:
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=KkBRqZS8nfM
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=w1h6ZjxF-To
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=0ojbJpERlt8
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=dzUqdYofMCQ
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=lNhzwNYhi0M
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=nY9DDEhShcE
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=5_8SEYyEZGI
>
> And even worse than this, a friend of mine who is a PhD student in
> Math at Berkeley has an even rarer disease known as Gaucher's Disease.
>  This costs $550,000 / year to treat.  That's a hefty bill every year
> (you make that much doing security vulns?), and some insurance
> companies might refuse to accept you due to "pre-existing" conditions.
>  So guess what, my friend does not have health insurance and has not
> been treated for two years.  A genius might die.  That's ludicrous.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaucher's_disease
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=0nX6QM5iVaU
>
> If we consider ourselves decent "hackers", why don't we put our
> efforts toward helping cure this and other diseases rather than some
> very simple programming vulnerability?  Is it because then we would
> have to reinvent a whole new slew of tools and re-orient/re-educate
> ourselves to be successful?  Think about it…
> --
> Kristian Erik Hermansen
> _______________________________________________
> Dailydave mailing list
> Dailydave@...ts.immunitysec.com
> http://lists.immunitysec.com/mailman/listinfo/dailydave
>

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