halligas writes "You may have noticed that last month McAfeeacquired security firm Foundstone. Not to be outdone, McAfee rival Symantec has gone out a bought up their very own bunch of hackers, @Stake."
I wonder what effect this will have on the ability of either parent company to provide better security/AV protection. IMO, Symantec has a faster response to secrity threats.
Will these aquisitions reinforce this mode for symantec or result in McAfee getting a bit better?
-- If I had a real.sig, it would go here.
the obvious question
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Funny
So who is going to buy Cult of the Dead Cow?
"Right now I'm recovering the password...
by
ARRRLovin
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· Score: 4, Funny
.......from this Windows2000 box with Symantec LC5."
Man.......that just sounds.....odd.
-- -Randy
do you mean shedding a tear because
by
joeflies
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
they've found a way to legally make money hacking?
Re:do you mean shedding a tear because
by
networkBoy
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
but it just doesn't have the allure it once had. I rember the l0pht and miss it.
By all means three cheers for the hackers making money at what they love, I just miss what it was. -nB
-- whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Re:do you mean shedding a tear because
by
jayhawk88
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· Score: 4, Insightful
...I just miss what it was.
Free?
Re:do you mean shedding a tear because
by
ackthpt
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Free?
What's the world coming to?
You pay for the software that's full of bugs and holes
THEN
You pay, again to have someone protect you from those bugs and holes.
Sh!t, it's like Detroit and the Saudi Royal Family in bed with each other... oh, wait... never mind.
Orange Alert: Someone has figured it out in Sector 12! Paging Carl Rove! Damage Containment! Whoop! Whoop!
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Wasn't @stake originally some other black-hat-ish group...like l0pth or something? Next thing you know, virus/worm writers will start asking for employment at anti-virus/security firms.:)
Hacker News Network
by
PreDefined
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
It's been a while...
I used to read HNN at school during lunch time.
The change in direction to it being simply @Stake was already a early sign of its new approach to bring in a more conservative audience.
Re:Hacker News Network
by
gustgr
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
This is expected, after all, one day a bunch of young and underground hacker become adults and have to assume more serious responsabilities.
Ohh... and there is the money and profits issues too.
Good, maybe they'll hire back Dan Geer...
by
octaene
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Since they gave him the boot while licking Microsoft's arse cheeks...
IIRC, @Stake used to be the hacker group l0pht which claimed they were able to "shut down the internet with the tap of a button". It's interesting that Symantec has aquired this group, its a bit ironic.
l0pht0r
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I think the only thing with l0pht is, if they wanted to remain l0pht, they should have kept that aspect outside of work.
I never understood how a 'hacker group' could merge with a legit company. The members of the group maybe, but MERGE a group with a company is alittle odd. In other words, l0pht should still be around, outside of @Stake. But i'm sure that would be a conflict of interest...or something like that.
I reality, l0pht was cool, but there was plenty of other stuff out there and good for them for cashing in. All everyone seems to want to do is call them sellouts because they did something innovative and got paid for it, instead of sitting behind a desk as a sysadmin for the rest of their lives doing jack shit complaining about everyone in their league who went on a limb and took a real chance. Good for the old l0pht crew.
McAfee rival Symantec has gone out a bought up their very own bunch of hackers, @Stake.
What in the world does it mean to have "gone out a bought up" something?
Re:If you want to get purchased by Symantec
by
Sentry21
·
· Score: 5, Funny
So that's the secret! I've been trying to market my SneezGuard firewall technology for years, but all I have to do is rename it to @Choo and I'm gold! Ah, sweet success, I can taste you now!
As far as the l0pht, good for them. Being broke all the time sucks. If you can make money and still maintain a level of integrity...i.e. walk the line between the corporate world and the world where people have integrity, and keep both feet on the integrity side, then as far as I'm concerned you're doing pretty well. From what I knew @Stake was doing that (and charging some serious fees...good for them!)
The bad though is @Stake being bought by Smantec. That is *not* a good thing. As I said, @Stake seemed to have some itegrity and Symantec...well they have *some* integrity, but not as much as they probably should. I don't see why @Stake couldn't/shouldn't continue on it's own. I think there's a line where the decision is whether to cash in or to preserve the company, and I think they crossed it. @Stake seemed to be a somewhat unique company and it seems like that is going to be lost in this. I guess we'll see.
I've got to disagree here. I think that the best thing a genuine hacker can do is to join into the industry as a position of influence. While a single individual has little influence preaching to the choir here on/. we [hacker community] do have power and influence once we enter the professional world. While we can not make single huge altruistic decisions that affect the world in a big way, we can steer our small portion of the world into the right direction, one little nudge at a time.
Think of it this way: The Exploratorium in San Francisco is a museum dedicated to science (recommended visit if you are ever in the city). They have an exhibit where a one ton concrete pillar is suspended by a chain from an arched support. A steel band girdles the pillar. All around the exhibit is a handrail so you can not touch the pillar directly. There are many small/weak refrigerator magnets on strings at the handrail. The "object" is to effect a movement on the pillar using these weak magnets. It takes time and patience, but I've successfully made the pillar nearly hit the handrail (it's designed so the pillar will not reach the rail to prevent the real possibility of injury).
We hackers in industry, @stake included, are those little magnets. Given time and direction we can achieve anything. For example I am nudging the division of my employer I work at to provide OSS drivers and code for the one product family I work with. The fear is that by OS'ing our drivers we'll allow competitors too much visibility into our product. My response was that we can release a binary and an OSS layer of source to interface that binary to the kernel. I've been gaining ground slowly, but I work in a very large company so change is slow. Eventually I hope to propagate this to other groups.
[/soapbox] -nB
-- whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Lets set the record straight
by
spacerog
·
· Score: 5, Informative
L0pht =! @Stake
and is hasn't for a long time. I think there is only one original L0pht person left at @snake.
It is unlikely any of the L0pht folks, or anyone not currently employed there will get anything out of this deal. All the money will most likely end up in the pockets of the VC. I know I don't get squat. (Anyone got a cool job they need filled? or even an uncool one?)
No one at L0pht ever said we could shut down the Internet with "the push of a button". It was 30 minutes. Using a router reset vulnerability that would cascade and confuse the major backbone providers, which has since been patched.
I tried to resurect HNN earlier this year but it seems no one was interested. or maybe I didn't advertise it well enough either way the traffic was abysml and I couldn't afford to keep it going. The WMA was taken over by Freaks Mac Archives long ago.
I submitted this exact same story to/. about 12 hours ago and it was regected. Maybe becuase I wasn't too polite in my descriptions of certian companies. Hmmmm, sounds familiar.
What has been most interesting is to see technology advance and realize that "Hey, L0pht thought of that 5 years ago." But due to lack of funds we could never make it happen. Of course after we got the money we no longer had control and can only sit back and watch as other people devloped our ideas. Sigh.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, of course. Symantec has a lot at stake.
Anyone else shedding a tear at what l0pht heavy industries has become?
I wonder what effect this will have on the ability of either parent company to provide better security/AV protection. IMO, Symantec has a faster response to secrity threats.
Will these aquisitions reinforce this mode for symantec or result in McAfee getting a bit better?
If I had a real
So who is going to buy Cult of the Dead Cow?
.......from this Windows2000 box with Symantec LC5." Man.......that just sounds.....odd.
-Randy
they've found a way to legally make money hacking?
Wasn't @stake originally some other black-hat-ish group...like l0pth or something? Next thing you know, virus/worm writers will start asking for employment at anti-virus/security firms. :)
It's been a while...
I used to read HNN at school during lunch time.
The change in direction to it being simply @Stake was already a early sign of its new approach to bring in a more conservative audience.
Since they gave him the boot while licking Microsoft's arse cheeks...
IIRC, @Stake used to be the hacker group l0pht which claimed they were able to "shut down the internet with the tap of a button". It's interesting that Symantec has aquired this group, its a bit ironic.
I think the only thing with l0pht is, if they wanted to remain l0pht, they should have kept that aspect outside of work.
I never understood how a 'hacker group' could merge with a legit company. The members of the group maybe, but MERGE a group with a company is alittle odd. In other words, l0pht should still be around, outside of @Stake. But i'm sure that would be a conflict of interest...or something like that.
I reality, l0pht was cool, but there was plenty of other stuff out there and good for them for cashing in. All everyone seems to want to do is call them sellouts because they did something innovative and got paid for it, instead of sitting behind a desk as a sysadmin for the rest of their lives doing jack shit complaining about everyone in their league who went on a limb and took a real chance. Good for the old l0pht crew.
McAfee rival Symantec has gone out a bought up their very own bunch of hackers, @Stake.
What in the world does it mean to have "gone out a bought up" something?
So that's the secret! I've been trying to market my SneezGuard firewall technology for years, but all I have to do is rename it to @Choo and I'm gold! Ah, sweet success, I can taste you now!
--Dan
As far as the l0pht, good for them. Being broke all the time sucks. If you can make money and still maintain a level of integrity...i.e. walk the line between the corporate world and the world where people have integrity, and keep both feet on the integrity side, then as far as I'm concerned you're doing pretty well. From what I knew @Stake was doing that (and charging some serious fees...good for them!)
The bad though is @Stake being bought by Smantec. That is *not* a good thing. As I said, @Stake seemed to have some itegrity and Symantec...well they have *some* integrity, but not as much as they probably should. I don't see why @Stake couldn't/shouldn't continue on it's own. I think there's a line where the decision is whether to cash in or to preserve the company, and I think they crossed it. @Stake seemed to be a somewhat unique company and it seems like that is going to be lost in this. I guess we'll see.
Sell-outs.
/. we [hacker community] do have power and influence once we enter the professional world. While we can not make single huge altruistic decisions that affect the world in a big way, we can steer our small portion of the world into the right direction, one little nudge at a time.
I've got to disagree here. I think that the best thing a genuine hacker can do is to join into the industry as a position of influence. While a single individual has little influence preaching to the choir here on
Think of it this way: The Exploratorium in San Francisco is a museum dedicated to science (recommended visit if you are ever in the city). They have an exhibit where a one ton concrete pillar is suspended by a chain from an arched support. A steel band girdles the pillar. All around the exhibit is a handrail so you can not touch the pillar directly. There are many small/weak refrigerator magnets on strings at the handrail. The "object" is to effect a movement on the pillar using these weak magnets. It takes time and patience, but I've successfully made the pillar nearly hit the handrail (it's designed so the pillar will not reach the rail to prevent the real possibility of injury).
We hackers in industry, @stake included, are those little magnets. Given time and direction we can achieve anything. For example I am nudging the division of my employer I work at to provide OSS drivers and code for the one product family I work with. The fear is that by OS'ing our drivers we'll allow competitors too much visibility into our product. My response was that we can release a binary and an OSS layer of source to interface that binary to the kernel. I've been gaining ground slowly, but I work in a very large company so change is slow. Eventually I hope to propagate this to other groups.
[/soapbox]
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
L0pht =! @Stake
and is hasn't for a long time. I think there is only one original L0pht person left at @snake.
It is unlikely any of the L0pht folks, or anyone not currently employed there will get anything out of this deal. All the money will most likely end up in the pockets of the VC. I know I don't get squat. (Anyone got a cool job they need filled? or even an uncool one?)
No one at L0pht ever said we could shut down the Internet with "the push of a button". It was 30 minutes. Using a router reset vulnerability that would cascade and confuse the major backbone providers, which has since been patched.
I tried to resurect HNN earlier this year but it seems no one was interested. or maybe I didn't advertise it well enough either way the traffic was abysml and I couldn't afford to keep it going. The WMA was taken over by Freaks Mac Archives long ago.
I submitted this exact same story to /. about 12 hours ago and it was regected. Maybe becuase I wasn't too polite in my descriptions of certian companies. Hmmmm, sounds familiar.
What has been most interesting is to see technology advance and realize that "Hey, L0pht thought of that 5 years ago." But due to lack of funds we could never make it happen. Of course after we got the money we no longer had control and can only sit back and watch as other people devloped our ideas. Sigh.
- SR
http://www.spacerogue.net