Week 12 - New World Hacker Ideals

 The New World Ideals for Hackers

The points raised by the post about the new ideals are some good ones and I feel inclined to agree with said points.

I see the ideal hackers as people who act out of passion and desire for security rather than a pay check. This is one of the reasons I see bug bounties as a near perfect system for companies, because people who are passionate into finding security concerns are guaranteed to be rewarded, be it that they actually find the vulnerability. But, there is one big concern with bug bounties, which exists for all gig economies, the fact that your monetary income may depend on luck a few too many times and months become unpredictable causing more stress and this might cause a conflict for hackers in terms of integrity.

If a hacker who has been on a rough patch hasn't found any vulnerabilities, they might be keen on finding shortcuts and cheats to disclose some vulnerabilities for the sake of surviving the month.

It is quite sad that the only way a hacker can hold onto these ideals, can only do so if they are already financially independent, which means they have to force themselves to do some things they do not enjoy in order to keep their integrity in check during their serious hobby.

I completely agree with the work ethic ideal of hackers, where the truth is born in debates. Constantly security experts are bickering on Twitter or other platforms, how some things should be done (penetration testing, documenting, scanning, etc.) and as long as the debate lasts, that long a certain truth cannot be held to. It become a matter of opinion/comfort who uses what and who does their things their way.

That is one of the most desirable ideals for me, there is no correct way of doing things. What you need is a desire to learn and some computer to do it on. That is all you need to become a hacker.

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