The Cult Of The Dead Cow

[Egaladeist]

Hi The Texan,

But that's like saying arsonists help keep firemen employed, or criminals keep police employed, or cancer keeps doctors employed, or in less extreme cases...
litterers keep street cleaners employed, or the homeless keeps hostel workers employed, etc...

to say that these people keep security workers employed and are therefore beneficial then...let's encourage more mayhem by paying them to create chaos to create even more employment, and to further strengthen our security...

and while we're at it let's not use garbage cans, and infect people with cancer, and create as much crime as we can while setting buildings on fire...so everyone can have job security...

does that make sense to you?

Eg

[The Texan]

Yes Eg, i see your point and just to be clear im not defending these people and what they do but, if they didnt exsist and no one ever created any problems on the net what would IT security people do? what job would they have? do you see my point??

[Egaladeist]

Hi The Texan,

I do see your point...really...they simply would have to find other jobs...personally, that would be a good thing...if there were no cyberidiots, no criminals, no fires, no homeless, no litterers, etc...as far as I'm concerned they could all get new jobs...

albeit, that expectation is highly unrealistic...

nevertheless, to say that we somehow benefit from the existence of cyberidiots, criminals, etc...is a falicy...for if they did not exist there would be no need of their counterparts...and therefore no need or desire to know how to combat them...the whole concept would not exist to us...and we would be consequently far better off.

They are not a benefit but a curse, and their counterparts are brought to bear as a means to restrain them...not to benefit from them.

Eg

[Agent_Steal]

Hi there Egaladeist read this link and you'll see why they created this tool in the first place :

[1] Back Orifice

A program can be created with good intentions but all it takes is someone to use it for something that it was not intended to be used for ...

E=mc² ......

[Egaladeist]

Hi AS,

I read the link...and as I said in my first post...

If they are the ones responsible for releasing a trojan into the general population then they're useless bags of ____! Deserving as little admiration as a terrorist and are in fact the internet equivalent of terrorists.

If you admire them then you probably admired Hitler, Stalin, and your heroes are Bin Laden and Microsoft.

Eg

If they're guilty...may a dead cow fall on their stinkin' heads and ____ in their soup...if they're not...disregard this post.

I never said they were guilty...I just said 'if ' they were guilty.

I agree...ethics/morality is highly dependant upon ( but not exclusive to ) intent...if their intent was to benefit that's one thing...and if their intent was malicious that's another thing.

Eg

You must spread your AntiPoints around before giving it to Agent_Steal again.

[Agent_Steal]

Yes Eg, i see your point and just to be clear im not defending these people and what they do but, if they didnt exist and no one ever created any problems on the net what would IT security people do? what job would they have? do you see my point??

Well they still would have a job Tex they would just have one less thing to worry about ....

I never said they were guilty...I just said 'if ' they were guilty.

Dont worry Egaladeist that thought never crossed my mind ...

[Aelphaeis]

If they are the ones responsible for releasing a trojan into the general population then they're useless bags of ____! Deserving as little admiration as a terrorist and are in fact the internet equivalent of terrorists.

I totally agree, releasing trojans has caused nothing but trouble.

[rcgreen]

It's a mixed picture, but since they release their "programs" freely,
rather than use them secretly to steal H-bomb secrets, they are
just like any other "security professionals" who publish info about
weaknesses in Windows. A little over the top, releasing working trojans,
but oh well....