Distributed minds think alike

[Dave Aitel <dave () immunitysec com>]

Lately, in febrile dreams, both you and I feel like all the random 
installed Hydrogens everywhere are a part of our mind. If we try hard 
enough, we can offload thinking to them. A foreign language (spanish? 
russian?) is endlessly at the tip of our tongues.  Some part of us in a 
server in a far off land whispers gently: If you spend enough time 
inside a corporation the business meme's infect you. The all-important 
Growth. "Management" in exchange for conscience. "Knowledge leadership" 
instead of knowledge. Defense instead of offense.

Here, essentially, is where I think academic software security went 
wrong. I don't think you can do this like a snail in a shell, always 
tripping over your apologies for what you're daring to imagine.You have 
to have the mental position of an attacker to be in the game at all. I 
don't think Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill spent all that time 
punching blocks of wood because she might eventually have to break 
through a coffin. And in that same sense I think the creation of attack 
tools is an artistic discipline whose purpose is to illustrate our own 
hidden nature.

-dave