Re: [fw-wiz] Ethics, morality and the industry

From: Margles (margles_at_gmail.com)
Date: 11/02/04

  • Next message: Christopher Hicks: "Re: [fw-wiz] Re: Ethics, morality and the industry" 
    To: "Paul D. Robertson" <paul@compuwar.net>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 13:01:52 -0600

    Good for them.

    I once witnessed an entire room of security executives give a standing
    ovation to Abagnale. Then checked out a website with which he was
    associated, and a book he had written, accidentally realizing in the
    process that there were significant differences in what he said
    speaking versus what I saw on the site and in the book...

    We as a society clearly elevate unethical and dishonest behaviour, not
    only in security but many other areas. Of course, this is a biased
    view, as I have been accused of being "too ethical" and "too honest" -
    but I am concerned about the effect this has on our society as a
    whole.

    On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 11:58:48 -0400 (EDT), Paul D. Robertson
    <paul@compuwar.net> wrote:
    > This year's CSI conference features the self-advancing "Catch me if you
    > can" guy, Frank Abagnale as a keynote speaker.
    >
    > Because of this, one of my co-workers, Bill Murray, has withdrawn from
    > speaking, as has Howard Schmidt with the "people who commit felonies
    > shouldn't profit from the results of their nefarious deeds, let
    > alone be sponsored by the security industry" train of thought[1].
    >
    > Bill's done the same before with a different organization advancing Kevin
    > Mitnick in the past. Personally, I think it's fantastic that there are
    > still people in this world who are willing to take the moral high ground,
    > and hold it.
    >
    > There's an interesting blurry line between doing things for good, and
    > doing things that may be good or bad. Hence I've mixed emotions about
    > people putting together tools that really tend to have more value to the
    > masses of bad guys than they do to the good guys. We know tunneling is
    > bad, we know it's an issue, and we don't need more tunnels to prove it-
    > let alone ones that are script-kiddie enabled to go through the
    > perimeter. Maybe there's a grouping of "definitely good people,
    > definitely bad people and sorta mixed in the middle" that I keep in my
    > mind- certainly, I try to associate with "definitely good people." Maybe
    > it's time I hung up a "Please don't feed the script kiddies" sign?
    >
    > Anyway, I just figured I'd hop up on the soapbox and tip my hat to Bill
    > Murray and Howard Schmidt. Keeping your moral compass pointing in the
    > right direction is a good thing. We're an industry built on trust and
    > ethics, and even if you don't particularly agree with someone's morality,
    > it's not a bad thing to respect that they'll hold their ethics- it's easy
    > to be ethical when nothing's on the line, the test is when you stand to
    > lose something.
    >
    > Mostly, I just wanted to publicly voice my support for
    > these gentlemen's actions, which to me speak much louder than words.
    >
    > Paul
    > -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    > Paul D. Robertson "My statements in this message are personal opinions
    > paul@compuwar.net which may have no basis whatsoever in fact."
    > probertson@trusecure.com Director of Risk Assessment TruSecure Corporation
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