Would You Hire a Former Black Hat?

Mark Zenson asks: "Understanding the mindset of a hacker and the likes of one may be useful to counter security attacks, but apparently companies still object to hiring former, or even reformed, black hats." The article asks this question of several executives in the industry and for various reasons, many of them were skeptical to the idea of hiring such people. Would you give black hats a second chance if you were in their position?

Comments

Re:It All Depends on Their Maturity

[TubeSteak]

Either way, if the black hat is that good, but still risky, you can get insurance for that kind of thing.

You'll always see adverts for "Bonded/Insured"
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/37146

"BONDED - A bonded company has secured funds (controlled by the state) that are available for consumer's claims against the company. This money is directly available to you for various reasons as controlled by a state agency. [ depending on your state ]

INSURED - If the unspeakable happens, it's important that the contractor or company has insurance. In some cases, such as an injury: you as a home owner could be held liable - if the company has no insurance. [ depending on your state ]"

Replace "company" with "person"

Re:It All Depends on Their Maturity

[ces]

If these sorts of "demands" - clean casual office ware and a minimum of body hardware - are so "superficial", what's the problem? Put on a pair of Dockers, and change after work. Put in your nose ring on the way out the door after work. What's the big deal?

It depends, I would suspect any West Coast technology company that expected "business casual" and "no visible piercings, tatoos, or weird hair" had far deeper problems than just thier dress code. On the other hand I would consider it a fairly enlightened dress code for a big investment bank.

Around here I have a choice of plenty of companies where my jeans, t-shirts or flannels, and long hair make me one of the more normal looking techies. I'd have to think long and hard about taking a job anywhere that expected Dockers and a polo as a minimum. No way am I prepared for the amount of soul sacrificing that would be required to work in a place that expected I wear a tie. (note this does depend on what position I'm being hired for, if I'm in a customer contact position I can understand the dress code)