Former LulzSec Hacker Gets a Job As Security Adviser At Big UK Firm (softpedia.com) 38
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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."
Rewarding Criminals! (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
That's almost exactly what it is like. Like a rapist, these folks have documented proof, courtesy of the criminal justice system, that they have done penetrations.
Re: (Score:2)
And in the end, it's always the users that get screwed.
Re: (Score:1)
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.
Re: (Score:1)
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
Re: (Score:2)
At least they didn't give that one his own tv show
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. Yet another sign that things aren't right when it comes to tech jobs. We have massive diversity problems because of asshole managers who demand that workers have zero personal life and 24/7/365 availability, driving women out of the industry.
Those of us who did what we were told, didn't go blackhat with our skills, and didn't try to rock the boat hoping we'd get ahead didn't. Hell, a lot of us here have stories about being harassed, railroaded, and either threatened with criminal prosecution or actu
Re: (Score:2)
We have massive diversity problems because of asshole managers who demand that workers have zero personal life and 24/7/365 availability, driving women out of the industry.
Oh Christ, not this shit again. Women, as a general rule, are not as interested in tech as men are. And having to be available 24/7 seems like a much bigger problem than "massive diversity problems". Then again, not every tech job is like that.
Takeaway: if you want to go into tech to make a living, go blackhat. [..] Then when you're ready to get a normal job and are tired of dodging the authorities, just publicly dox yourself, serve a token sentence, and get hired for god knows how much!
No thanks. I'd rather not spend a year or multiple years in prison. And I'm not a thief.
Re: (Score:2)
Women, as a general rule, are not as interested in tech as men are
No, to paraphrase Raymond Chandler, some women are not as interested in tech as some men.
Re: (Score:2)
You sound upset that you behaved, did as you were told, and didn't get rewarded.
You are a salesperson. Everyone is a salesperson no matter what field you are in, and the product is yourself. Build an interesting 'brand' around yourself and you will get interest. Be a good little worker-ant in a quiet back room and you will not get noticed no matter how good you are. Mustafa isn't being rewarded for his poor ethics, he is being rewarded for having an interesting story that gets attention despite his poor eth
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't that a Lion King character or something ?
That'll be Mustafa Pee, the incontinent hyena.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah...OK. So when Bush, Cheney, Blair and the rest of that foul crew own up and get held accountable, give me a call.
Re: (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
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 pat
money (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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 on
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Hacker wannabe Ghostshell (Score:1)