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Former LulzSec Hacker Gets a Job As Security Adviser At Big UK Firm (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Mustafa Al-Bassam, co-founder and former member of LulzSec under the alias tFlow, has announced he'll be joining Secure Trading, a UK-based online payments firm, assuming the role of security adviser. He'll be consulting the company on various ways to secure their upcoming blockchain-based payments system. The announcement comes two days after another hacker (GhostShell) revealed his true identity, just so he could get prosecuted, get it over with, and move on with his life by getting a legitimate job in the security industry.
It's like giving a rapist a job as a sex toy consultant.
That's why you can only trust male, cross-dressing revolutionaries and insurgents. They don't even want to be the man in the first place.
Except that there are a lot more people with the skill to find vulnerabilities than there are high-profile crackers and DDoSers.
So it's like saying, "This person is obese, so clearly they would make a good food taster." No - all it means is that they're willing to spend a lot of time eating a lot of your food.
He goes to King's College... damn he has some serious money behind him
Go away!
You have a point here.
This speaks to the complete state of disrepair the various fields in tech are in. Fast talking con artists can play bullshit buzzword bingo and get in even though they can't code their way out of a paper box.
I don't know what the answer is. Certifications have clearly shown to be inadequate. Degrees are so hopelessly watered down as to be meaningless (not to mention the cost of obtaining one is spiraling out of control thanks to the student-loan-college-industrial-complex).
I mean, I don't doubt the guy's skills. I haven't really maintained my skills lately because I no longer want to have anything to fucking do with tech, so he could probably take me to school. On the other hand, I doubt he could break into webapps I publish because I understand the underpinnings and RFCs and generally know what the fuck I'm doing. I may have said I'm not maintaining my skills, but the old rule of "validate all input and trust no input" is as true as the day I got into this field. Who says he's not just a metasploit jockey? I have that installed on my server in the clouds, just haven't had time or lately interest to learn how to use it for penetration testing.
You're point is valid if we remove all ethical concerns from the question. Do you really want somebody who had no problem defacing websites and stealing user data working for you? Maybe you do. I don't know. It's a free country.
It's just a damned shame that the state of the field is in such shambles.
Yeah...OK. So when Bush, Cheney, Blair and the rest of that foul crew own up and get held accountable, give me a call.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
At least they didn't give that one his own tv show
lucm, indeed.
Roosevelt committed crimes against the economy and against the American people, and got away with it. There's quite a backlog when it comes to politics, Bush is minor leagues at best in that list.
lucm, indeed.
Actually, the dude who did all the counterfeiting ended up working for the FBI and then for the banks as a consultant and now designs things that are more difficult to counterfeit. He even got a movie named after him. Buggered if I can recollect the name but the person is a real person who has since moved on to do some computer security stuff if I recall the eWeek article.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
That's sort of like saying we can't hold a murderer accountable because Bush started a war that got more people killed.
Of course we can. These kids fucked up. Now, if there is a punishment, it should certainly fit the crime, to be sure. 20 years in prison doesn't seem like it would be fair, but it shouldn't be a slap on the hand either.
I am definitely a little iffy on people hiring "retired" black hat hackers for their Red Team, if only because that tends to encourage hackers to black hat as a career path. When serving time is simply considered your stepping stone to a better non-criminal job, there's something wrong going on.
Note, he's not doing it to atone or because he cares if he screwed anyone. He's doing it so he can take credit so everyone knows he's a well-known hacker. Which then *improves* his resume. Would Bush admitting that he ran an impressive scam to start a war mean that he'd get kudos and a job offer because he clearly knows how to get things done? I wouldn't think so.
There's an interview on a romanian website with GhostShell where he explains why he doxed himself (it's in romanian, but google can translate it). I'm surprised this article didn't get pricked up by more news agencies: http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-es... He's been working in a UK factory for the last 3 years, 12 hour shifts because nobody in the IT industry would hire him. He doesn't really have marketable skills and he looks like a script kiddie that probably can't hack specific targets, but aims scripts and tools at the internet hoping for the best.
Isn't that a Lion King character or something ?
That'll be Mustafa Pee, the incontinent hyena.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
When you hire a criminal, you get a criminal.
It depends on your view of rehabilitation.
Personally, I can see how a paedophile who has served his time in prison should be allowed to work so he's not just a drain on society, but that doesn't mean you'd employ him as a school caretaker.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
That's his name and yeah, he had some computer fraud detection or counterfeit detection stuff going the last time I saw him mentioned somewhere. He's got his own business now (or did) and I think they even have some software that they sell. I'm pretty sure it's not typical end-user stuff.
It was a pretty good movie. I actually watched "Hackers" last night. Well, I tried to. I made it about halfway through. Given by the completed ratio, you can probably guess my opinion. I was less than impressed and could only make it so far into the movie.
I don't think I've seen the Mitnick movie. I'll definitely remember to look for it. I had no idea that there was a movie - there are a few documentaries. I typically only watch documentaries. As in, I've probably watched less than a dozen regular movies in the past year. I'm going to guess that the total number is less than ten, now that I think about it. I do, on the other hand, have documentaries going quite often, that or some streaming news radio.
At any rate, thanks. I'll check into the Mitnick movie tonight *if* I am still here and able to do so. Netflix or Hulu might have it. If not then, it's Mitnick, I'm sure one of the other sites will have it available for the low price of a few well crafted search terms.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Or, "Never trust anyone over 30" :)
There is a great quote often mis-attributed to Churchhill:
"If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain."
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"