full-disclosure - Beyond black, white, and grey: the Yellow Hat Hacker

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Message-ID: <200211182024.gAIKOi823895@netsys.com>
From: ratel at mailvault.com (ratel)
Subject: Beyond black, white, and grey: the Yellow Hat Hacker

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Full disclosure:

I've been reading the "Security Industry Under Scrutiny" series with
great interest. Funny how nearly all of Sockz' critics have focused on
leveling personal attacks about what a lame kiddie he is. Why? Why do
they appear to be doing everything in their power to avoid addressing
the central issue at hand, namely, the hypocrisy of financial gain by
putting working exploits in the hands of script kiddies while claiming
to care about security? 

Can't you address his points without leveling an ad-hominem attack? 

I'm equally unimpressed by the odious insinuations that unless he has
the right letters after his name, nothing he says could possibly be
worth hearing. Credentialism is the last refuge of the smug and vapid.

Well, that said, and given all the confusion and useless hand-waving
about who's doing what and why, I think it's time we move beyond black,
white and gray and on to an entirely new conception of hat color.

May I present: the Yellow Hat Hacker.

Yellow, the color of cowardice and piss.
Yellow, soiled white. 
Yellow, the color of gold. 

Yellow hat hacking is the sole province of those motivated by MONEY
while attempting to pass themselves off as something they're not. 

No one motivated by ideology could ever be a yellow hat hacker.

Take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself if you fit in one
of the following categories:

Ever been hired to backdoor software or an operating system? You're a
yellow hat hacker.

Selling snake oil to the government while desperately trying to be in
"the scene"? Yep, you guessed it: a yellow hat hacker.

In the corporate espionage business? Smile, you're a yellow hat
hacker.

Taking active technical measures to rat out your peers as part of a deal
with the FBI to avoid persecution? Participating in their little
“experiments”? A yellow hat hacker in the worst sort of way. 

Letting a well-respected think tank or research institution pimp you out
for peanuts to the federal agency of their choice? Wake up hoe, you're a
yellow hat hacker.

You vote libertarian, but take funding from the CIA or do business with
any of their front companies?  You lay awake at night worrying about the
loss of civil liberties, but somehow don't mind enough to forgo that fat
contract from the feds? Hey, guess what! You're a yellow hat hacker.

Just a thought.

Ratel.

***

"Americans used to roar like lions for liberty. Now we bleat
like sheep for security." - Norman Vincent Peale.

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