Quote:
Originally Posted by JJ_BPK
The newest generation of James Bond has a PHD in computer design and has a grudge about not being picked for the T-ball team, back in grade school and has a autographed collection of Bill Gates posters..
|
JJ_BPK--
Sir, IMHO, your post touches on a component of this dynamic that merits more attention: the culture of hacking. In addition to end users sharing tips to compromise the security of hardware and software, hackers propagate the argument that they not only have the right to hack but a moral obligation to do so.
If someone points out that they're stealing, that person is quickly shouted down in a barrage of proto-class consciousness arguments that are, in my view, laughable. (In many instances, these are the same folks who think that
The Matrix trilogy is a cinematic masterpiece.
)
On the other side of the equation, one can find software engineers, support technicians, IT staff, and quality assurance testers who are frequently ambivalent to the task of securing platforms and programs.
During a stint at a R&D lab, I witnessed on numerous occasions marathon conference calls that were the result of massive email strings that resulted from a lapse in security. After the smoke cleared, friends and colleagues would bemoan how the conference call had sidetracked their project schedules. Rarely would they take umbrage with the source of the issue as they rolled up their sleeves (metaphorically) to fix a bug, banged out a new build, or grit their teeth to get a server reformatted in time for the FedEx pick up.
"Hey, we got any more Mountain Dew?"
ETA: My solution is ZoneAlarm Extreme. (I think the "extreme" refers to the app's drain on hardware resources and the likelihood that it is going to crash Firefox 3 right in the middle of doing research for a BB post. Oh yeah, I'm bitter.)