Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
RE: Re: Ethics, morality, and mental retardation
From: "Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr () ranum com>
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 2004 09:28:33 -0500
Miha Vitorovic wrote:
I see this point come up again and again throughout this thread. "Mitnik should choose another line of work, for me, _the security expert_, to be happy." Why?
Maybe it hasn't happened to you, or maybe you don't care, but as a professional I can't count the number of times I've told some dumb-!*!#$#! journalist I'm a security practitioner and had them leer and ask me for stories about my hacking past. "Uh, I never DID that kind of stuff!" "Suuuuuuuure...." One of the big problems with tolerating the presence of criminal activity in a field is that it de-professionalizes it. It's obviously just a matter of personal taste, but I prefer to have my lines cleanly drawn; as a "good guy" I don't like having to periodically defend my "good guy" credentials just because there are so many "ex-bad guys" hovering around in search of a quick buck.
Why don't we all start selling cars? Because we don't want to.
True; it's a matter of choice. Of course, I could quit this field and get a job as a system administrator again. If you've got a nice clean swimming pool with a lot of people enjoying themselves there, and one character decides to join the pool and start peeing in it - either all the good people have to leave, or they ask the distasteful newcomer to leave or stop. Eventually some leave anyhow. I understand where you are going with your argument but fundamentally the problem of individual liberty is that there are few actions in a society that can be totally individual.
But Mitnik has to? Why? Yes, a criminal looses his rights when he is in jail, but he gets them back when he does his time. Including the right to have a job he likes, not a job someone else thinks he ought to have.
That's true. And when a paedophile gets out of treatment, he should be able to operate a day-care center if he wants to. And I'm completely in favor of necrophiliac owned-and-operated funeral homes. But, if you go that route, suddenly society is destabilized. Suddenly everyone has to start asking pointed questions of everyone else. The reason the journalists ask security professionals about their "hacker pasts" is because so (!*!$&!&! many "security professionals" are the proverbial ex-arsonist on the fire truck. It's not a simple issue, because - yes - the ex-whatever has rights, but their presence damages everyone's credibility.
And another thing I see in most of the letters is: "My security advice is just as good as Mitnik's." Which to me, also means, "Well, obviously then, his advice is just as good as yours.", but the authors somehow think that theirs is better. And, some of them are right. But, all of them? Hmm...
Yes, that's a bad trap to fall into. Many of us have consistently maintained that the skills required to break security systems are a subset of the skills required to build them. That's a fairly gentle put-down, of course. Really, what I mean to say is "So what? He's a clueless ex-hacker. He couldn't even elude the FBI for crying out loud. How smart is THAT? My horse probably knows more about security than he does." But that doesn't sound very professional, either. :) See? The reason I want guys like him out of the industry where I work is because I periodically have to waste my time explaining the difference between a real security practitioner and a chump. If the chumps would just be nice enough to get out of the swimming pool and stop peeing in it, I'd be happier. I know I'm selfish, but I like clean water.
And, again and again, in the end it comes down to money. "Hey, he's making money! Stop him! That's money I was supposed to make!"
I probably made more money in 1999 than Mitnick has made in his entire life. Really. For me, it's not about the money. Money is a way of keeping score, that's all. When someone is willing to pay the guy who pees in the pool $5,000 to say how he did it (wow! it was hard!) and pays the guy who cleaned up after him $40 - it's a statement of the relative value society (or whoever) places on that individual and their contribution to society. In that light, yeah, it's annoying to me that guys like Mitnick are rewarded for their former crimes - because it's saying "thank you for peeing in our pool! we appreciate it!"
But, people with money choose to give it to him. Again, it's their money, they can give it to anyone they like.
Yes; you're adopting the childishly facile moral position of ultimate personal liberty. I can't refute it, either, since I believe a great deal in personal choice. However, I think that choice should be made with responsibility.
What I'm trying to say is, that so far, I haven't seen a single point that would convince me that having Mitnik as a speaker is a bad thing. But I have seen an awful lot of bruised egos.
I think you're probably projecting your own motives, then. Hopefully my response has helped explain some of the motivation behind at least a few of our views. Yes, the desire for respect fundamentally boils down to egotism - but when you're talking about whether an entire *industry* is respected, then it's more an issue of efficiency. Imagine if every time you went to a restaurant, you felt that you HAD to make sure the waiter hadn't spit in your food. Imagine how much more complicated dining out would be? At a certain point, the social contract breaks down when untrustworthy people mingle too closely with trustworthy people. Suddenly everything falls apart into doubt. mjr. _______________________________________________ firewall-wizards mailing list firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com http://honor.icsalabs.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
Current thread:
- RE: Re: Ethics, morality, and mental retardation Miha Vitorovic (Nov 02)
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- RE: Re: Ethics, morality, and mental retardation Marcus J. Ranum (Nov 04)
- RE: Re: Ethics, morality, and mental retardation Miha Vitorovic (Nov 04)
- RE: Re: Ethics, morality, and mental retardation Marcus J. Ranum (Nov 04)
- Message not available
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Re: Ethics, morality, and mental retardation MHawkins (Nov 04)