Selling Out for Fun and Profit

Architecture and Background

hellNbak - Selling Out For Fun and Profit Selling Out For Fun and Profit Recent events in the security industry have caused multiple groups to cry foul and claim that many so called hackers have sold out. A war of words has errupted between those crying foul and those who have apparently sold out.

Vulnerability Analysis

Most recently, Gweeds presented a talk at H2K2 that touched on many nerves when he pointed fingers at specific people in the security industry. While the talk given by Gweeds was based mostly on made up stories and FUD he touched on some points that deserve a bit of attention.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

Additionally, the articles written in The Register by Thomas Greene points out that the media in general has a responsibility to verify facts -- somthing does not seem to be hapenning. The talk presented by hellNbak will address these issues along with some of the dirty little secrets in the security industry.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

In general, Hackers hack for the quest of knowledge and the ability to be places that others cannot go. Based on this, Hacktivism, cyberterrorism, and selling out is a myth and until hackers are hacking for a real cause it always will be. hellNbak has been around the IT Security industry for 11 years and a member of NMRC for three of those years. He has worked in a security related capacity for large companies such as IBM, BindView Development and Ernst & Young. Up until this year, hellNbak has found it necessary to hide behind his NMRC nym but after DefCon hellNbak, now a self employed Security Consultant, no longer needs the cover of a nym to protect himself from clueless managers and threatening venduhs.