Re: Fwd: Rate Stratfor's Incident Response

[Laurelai <laurelai () oneechan org>]

On 1/12/12 3:27 AM, doc mombasa wrote:
> just one question
> why should they hire the "skiddies" if most of them only know how to 
> fire up sqlmap or whatever current app is hot right now?
> doesnt really seem like enough reason to hire anyone
> besides im not buying the whole "they do it because they are angry at 
> society" plop
> ive been there.. they do it for the lulz
>
> Den 11. jan. 2012 06.18 skrev Laurelai <laurelai () oneechan org 
> <mailto:laurelai () oneechan org>>:
>
>     On 1/10/12 10:18 PM, Byron Sonne wrote:
>     >> Don't piss off a talented adolescent with computer skills.
>     > Amen! I love me some stylin' pwnage :)
>     >
>     > Whether they were skiddies or actual hackers, it's still amusing
>     (and
>     > frightening to some) that companies who really should know
>     better, in
>     > fact, don't.
>     >
>     And again, if companies hired these people, most of whom come from
>     disadvantaged backgrounds and are self taught they wouldn't have
>     as much
>     a reason to be angry anymore. Most of them feel like they don't
>     have any
>     real opportunities for a career and they are often right. Microsoft
>     hired some kid who hacked their network, it is a safe bet he isn't
>     going
>     to be causing any trouble anymore. Talking about the trust issue, who
>     would you trust more the person who has all the certs and experience
>     that told you your network was safe or the 14 year old who proved him
>     wrong? We all know if that kid had approached microsoft with his
>     exploit
>     in a responsible manner they would have outright ignored him,
>     that's why
>     this mailing list exists, because companies will ignore security
>     issues
>     until it bites them in the ass to save a buck.
>
>     People are way too obsessed with having certifications that don't
>     actually teach practical intrusion techniques. If a system is so
>     fragile
>     that teenagers can take it down with minimal effort then there is a
>     serious problem with the IT security industry. Think about it how long
>     has sql injection been around? There is absolutely no excuse for being
>     vulnerable to it. None what so ever. These kids are showing people the
>     truth about the state of security online and that is whats making
>     people
>     afraid of them. They aren't writing 0 days every week, they are using
>     vulnerabilities that are publicly available. Using tools that are
>     publicly available, tools that were meant to be used by the people
>     protecting the systems. Clearly the people in charge of protecting
>     these
>     system aren't using these tools to scan their systems or else they
>     would
>     have found the weaknesses first.
>
>     The fact that government organizations and large name companies and
>     government contractors fall prey to these types of attacks just
>     goes to
>     show the level of hypocrisy inherent to the situation. Especially when
>     their solution to the problem is to just pass more and more
>     restrictive
>     laws (as if that's going to stop them). These kids are showing people
>     that the emperor has no clothes and that's whats making people angry,
>     they are putting someones paycheck in danger. Why don't we solve the
>     problem by actually addressing the real problem and fixing systems
>     that
>     need to be fixed? Why not hire these kids with the time and energy on
>     their hands to probe for these weaknesses on a large scale? The ones
>     currently in the job slots to do this clearly aren't doing it.  I
>     bet if
>     they started replacing these people with these kids it would shake the
>     lethargy out of the rest of them and you would see a general
>     increase in
>     competence and security. Knowing that if you get your network
>     owned by a
>     teenager will not only get you fired, but replaced with said
>     teenager is
>     one hell of an incentive to make sure you get it right.
>
>
>     Yes they would have to be taught additional skills to round out what
>     they know, but every job requires some level of training and there are
>     quite a few workplaces that will help their employees continue their
>     education because it benefits the company to do so. This would be no
>     different except that the employees would be younger, and younger
>     people
>     do tend to learn faster so it would likely take less time to teach
>     these
>     kids the needed skills to round out what they already know than it
>     would
>     to teach someone older the same thing. It is the same principal behind
>     teaching young children multiple languages, they learn them better
>     than
>     adults.
>
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Because the ones in charge right now can't even seem to fire up sqlmap 
now and then to see if they are vuln. And if you really believe that 
they just do it for the lulz line...
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