Penetration Testing: Re: Professional Scrpt Kiddies vs Real Talent

[Omar Herrera <oherrera () prodigy net mx>]

Hi Adriel,

I agree that you have script kiddies on both ends, but  this is the 
nature of humans. You get you car these days to the mechanic and most of 
them run some kind of scanner without understanding the inner details, 
look at the report, replace the parts and that's it. They do what they 
were trained for, nothing more or nothing else, and sometimes, that's 
just what it's needed.
We got scientists and experts that claim to know the ultimate truth, 
just to get debunked by the next generation of great scientists and 
experts in an endless loop.
Now, don't take me wrong, but look at one of your statements:
"

I’m talking about doing actual vulnerability research and exploit development to help educate people about risks for 
the purposes of defense. After all, if a security company can’t write an exploit then what business do they have 
launching exploits against your company?

"
I disagree with this :-), a deep technical understanding is not the only 
way to security in my opinion. I think we can also learn a lot about 
security risks from analysing things like business processes and human 
behaviour.
The people you list do deserve to be highly respected in the 
informations sector, but so do others that have chosen different paths 
from technical nirvana. I do understand your feelings for people that 
claim to be something that they are not, but we have created this by 
alienating any newbie that comes to these forums (just for lack of 
knowledge or asking wrong questions). We tend to have heated discussions 
around philosophical issues that don't have a single answer, and let our 
egos flourish as soon as  we feel we have grasped enough knowledge to 
consider ourselves experts.
I don't blame newcomers for opting to take the easy path after getting a 
few beatings for asking  for knowledge and then getting blamed for this 
(they probably don't even care). Honestly, they are not the problem, we 
are. We try so hard to make this an elite and closed circle that we 
forget about our true goals.
Regards,

Omar


Adriel Desautels escribió:
> Posted on: http://snosoft.blogspot.com/2010/03/good-guys-in-security-world-are-no.html
>
> Comments, insults, etc. on the blog (or here) are more than welcome.
>
> --
>
> The Good Guys in the security world are no different from the Bad Guys; most of them are nothing more than glorified 
> Script Kiddies. The fact of the matter is that if you took all of the self-proclaimed hackers in the world and you 
> subjected them to a litmus test, very few would pass as actual hackers.
>
> This is true for both sides of the proverbial Black and White hat coin. In the Black Hat world, you have script-kids 
> who download programs that are written by other people then use those programs to “hack” into networks. The White Hat’s 
> do the exact same thing; only they buy the expensive tools instead of downloading them for free. Or maybe they’re 
> actually paying for the pretty GUI, who knows?
>
> What is pitiable is that in just about all cases these script kiddies have no idea what the programs actually do. 
> Sometimes that’s because they don’t bother to look at the code, but most of the time its because they just can’t 
> understand it. If you think about it that that is scary. Do you really want to work with a security company that 
> launches attacks against your network with tools that they do not fully understand? I sure wouldn’t.
>
> This is part of the reason why I feel that it is so important for any professional security services provider to 
> maintain an active research team. I’m not talking about doing market research and pretending that its security research 
> like so many security companies do. I’m talking about doing actual vulnerability research and exploit development to 
> help educate people about risks for the purposes of defense. After all, if a security company can’t write an exploit 
> then what business do they have launching exploits against your company?
>
> I am very proud to say that Everything Channel recently released the 2010 CRN Security Researchers list and that 
> Netragard’s Kevin Finisterre was on the list. Other people that were included in the list are people that I have the 
> utmost respect for. As far as I am concerned, these are the top security experts:
>
>     * Dino Dai Zovi
>     * Kevin Finisterre
>     * Landon Fuller
>     * Robert Graham
>     * Jeremiah Grossman
>     * Larry Highsmith
>     * Billy Hoffman
>     * Mikko Hypponen
>     * Dan Kaminsky
>     * Paul Kocher
>     * Nate Lawson
>     * David Litchfield
>     * Charles Miller
>     * Jeff Moss
>     * Jose Nazario
>     * Joanna Rutkowska
>
>
> In the end I suppose it all boils down to what the customer wants. Some customers want to know their risks; others just 
> want to put a check in the box. For those who want to know what their real risks are, you’ve come to the right place.
>
>   

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