International cybercrime, as portrayed by the movies and mass media, is a high-stakes game of shadowy government agencies and state-sponsored hacking groups. Hollywood casting will wheel out a char…
This doesn’t mean he can’t end up in the cyber security field. A lot of pretty famous hackers started by doing stuff like this, got caught, then turned it into a business doing stuff on the up and up.
Perhaps but it can also be very much against them. I worked at a huge UK cybersecurity org and if you had any prior malicious or computer misuse past, you would get rejected. Given how small the UK is, even tiny orgs can be connected to government or public sector meaning they won’t want anyone on the books with a questionable past.
Hopefully that becomes more nuanced with time. Did you hack your school? Or an unrelated entity? What color hat, grey or black? Last known activity? Age of the person at the time?
All questions that need answers presented alongside any history of misuse.
Honestly I can’t imagine that’s a tenable position to take long term. We’ve seen the U.S. govt rethink it’s approach to IT after it was pointed out their failure to intice applicants was a result of stupidly strict Drug Policy and Dress Code. Who knew that a large segment of the IT field don’t like Business Casual and like to smoke weed? Who knew that people drawn to CyberSecurity are likely to have dabbled on the other side of the line prior to making a career out of it?
I think most of the people who did something pretty high profile, or are that good, start their own thing instead of just seeking out a job somewhere. For example, Kevin Mitnick, George Hotz, and Walter O’Brien.
This doesn’t mean he can’t end up in the cyber security field. A lot of pretty famous hackers started by doing stuff like this, got caught, then turned it into a business doing stuff on the up and up.
Like in the documentary Swordfish
Perhaps but it can also be very much against them. I worked at a huge UK cybersecurity org and if you had any prior malicious or computer misuse past, you would get rejected. Given how small the UK is, even tiny orgs can be connected to government or public sector meaning they won’t want anyone on the books with a questionable past.
Hopefully that becomes more nuanced with time. Did you hack your school? Or an unrelated entity? What color hat, grey or black? Last known activity? Age of the person at the time?
All questions that need answers presented alongside any history of misuse.
Honestly I can’t imagine that’s a tenable position to take long term. We’ve seen the U.S. govt rethink it’s approach to IT after it was pointed out their failure to intice applicants was a result of stupidly strict Drug Policy and Dress Code. Who knew that a large segment of the IT field don’t like Business Casual and like to smoke weed? Who knew that people drawn to CyberSecurity are likely to have dabbled on the other side of the line prior to making a career out of it?
I think most of the people who did something pretty high profile, or are that good, start their own thing instead of just seeking out a job somewhere. For example, Kevin Mitnick, George Hotz, and Walter O’Brien.