RE: Ethical Hacking Training

["DeGennaro, Gregory" <Gregory_DeGennaro () csaa com>]

"Know your enemy" is nice, "know your job" is, in my
opinion, better."

There are a lot of professionals that know their job well and know nothing
of Infosec.  Infosec is in a world of its own and to be good at it, you have
to be multi-faceted.  A lot of professionals out in the industry only
specialized.  Information Security professionals usually explore outside
their initial backgrounds because they are either bored or they want more
knowledge. 

Wars were only won by the victors who knew their enemy well and knew their
job.  To be effective, you have to know both.

Regards,

Greg DeGennaro Jr., CCNP


-----Original Message-----
From: Meritt James [mailto:meritt_james () bah com] 
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 10:06 AM
To: DeGennaro, Gregory
Cc: Teicher Mark (Mark); Rob Shein; Andy Cuff [Talisker];
pen-test () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Ethical Hacking Training

Here we go again.  I believe that those skills necessary to build a
building are different than those to demolish a building.  There are
construction engineers and there are demolition experts.  Different
things.  And the skills to fix a car engine are not those necessary to
vandalize one.  "Know your enemy" is nice, "know your job" is, in my
opinion, better.

"DeGennaro, Gregory" wrote:
> Very good statement and you do need to know your enemy.
>
> Just because you're a police officer, soldier, or in our case, information
> security engineers, does not mean you or I really know our enemy and their
> full or potential capabilities.
>
> Ethical hacking gives us an overview or lets us peer into the cracker's
> world.  Of course, the classes do not have the latest cracks unless they
> have a honey pot running and receiving such traffic.  Nor, does it make us
> crackers.  It is only a look see and not cracker training.
>
> Ethical Hacking is really a coin term for the public and those who do not
> know the difference between hacker, wacker, and cracker.  The public only
> knows or thinks they know what a hacker is.  In reality, they have no clue
> that a hacker is good and the other two are not.
>
> Also, how do you propose a professional runs pen and vuln tests against
> their network to secure holes in their fortifications?  There are good
> products on in the market; however not everyone can afford them, use them
> properly, or the software or device is not totally up to date or catches
> everything.
>
> Regards,
>
> Greg DeGennaro Jr., CCNP
> Security Analyst
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Teicher, Mark (Mark) [mailto:teicher () avaya com]
> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 7:10 PM
> To: Rob Shein; Andy Cuff [Talisker]; pen-test () securityfocus com
> Subject: RE: Ethical Hacking Training
>
> Talisker,
>
> I still have an issue with the term "Ethical hacking"  It was a term
> born out of the Big Six when they were trying build their security
> practices and leverage their existing client base.  I still feel the
> term is somewhat of slant on those who practice "holistic security" and
> actually attempt to help customers improve their network security
> posture instead of pointing out the "glaring" hole that those who
> practice "Ethical Hacking" like to do.
>
> I have worked in the past with those who preach and teach "Ethical
> Hacking" Many of those people have published books exploiting that exact
> theme.
>
> Why not spend the time in researching how to correct security exploits
> in enforcing secure coding standards and forcing vendors to clean up
> their act and making their products work more efficiently and securely.
>
> /mark
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-- 
James W. Meritt CISSP, CISA
Booz | Allen | Hamilton
phone: (410) 684-6566

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