Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Re: Ethics, morality and the industry
From: Mike Smith <jmikesmith () yahoo com>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:29:38 -0400 (EDT)
<de-lurk> The man committed crimes, was caught and convicted, and served the time awarded by various governments. From what I read, he has been clean for a quarter of a century. Indeed, he has helped police authorities fight criminal activities such as he once engaged in. I guess the issue is how long does it take before one accepts that a convicted person has truly reformed? If the answer is "forever," then what is the point in ever letting him out of jail? Can criminals never acknowledge the error of their ways and return to civilized society? Can we not learn anything from them? Here in Canada, for instance, a convicted person must serve his full sentence and remain "of good conduct" for three to five years (depending on the offence) afterwards, and then he can apply for a pardon, which sets aside his criminal record (but does not destroy it; by the way, some offences, notably violent ones, are not pardonable). The thinking is that the person has "paid his debt to society" and is entitled to a relatively unfettered attempt to contribute once again. This is _not_ to suggest that I approve of hiring self-proclaimed ex-hackers as security professionals. By and large, they have not "paid their debts." There is no evidence or behaviour that would lead you to conclude they have reformed their ways. Disclosure: I'm planning on attending the CSI conference (if upper management approves the travel request). <lurk> --- Paul D. Robertson wrote:
This year's CSI conference features the self-advancing "Catch me if you can" guy, Frank Abagnale as a keynote speaker. Because of this, one of my co-workers, Bill Murray, has withdrawn from speaking, as has Howard Schmidt with the "people who commit felonies shouldn't profit from the results of their nefarious deeds, let alone be sponsored by the security industry" train of thought[1]. Bill's done the same before with a different organization advancing Kevin Mitnick in the past. Personally, I think it's fantastic that there are still people in this world who are willing to take the moral high ground, and hold it. <snip>
===== Mike Smith "Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." H.G. Wells - The Outline of History ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca _______________________________________________ firewall-wizards mailing list firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com http://honor.icsalabs.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
Current thread:
- Ethics, morality and the industry Paul D. Robertson (Oct 28)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Ethics, morality and the industry MHawkins (Oct 28)
- RE: Ethics, morality and the industry R. DuFresne (Oct 28)
- Message not available
- RE: Ethics, morality and the industry Marcus J. Ranum (Oct 28)
- Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Adrian Grigorof (Oct 29)
- Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Mike Smith (Oct 28)
- Re: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Paul D. Robertson (Oct 28)
- Re: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Greg Skouby (Oct 29)
- Re: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Paul D. Robertson (Oct 29)
- Re: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Paul D. Robertson (Oct 28)
- Re: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Marcus J. Ranum (Oct 29)
- Re: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Paul Foster (Oct 29)
- Re: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Paul Foster (Oct 29)
- RE: Re: Ethics, morality and the industry Paul D. Robertson (Oct 29)