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…
They’re a kid and clearly have a passion for computers and technology which could have been tapped for the greater good - the UK is desperate for more people to enter the cybersecurity industry (but not like this). Sadly there are so few teachers left with any passion let alone expertise in computer science, the kid didn’t stand a chance.
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?
Steal a couple thousands with identity fraud and account hacking? Jail time, no jobs that need cybersec clearance will touch you with a ten foot pole.
Steal millions+ from multiple large corpos with dedicated cybersec, and you’ll be getting offers out the wazoo, but you’ll be rejecting them because you’re already working for some think tank attached to the NSA.
They’re a kid and clearly have a passion for computers and technology which could have been tapped for the greater good - the UK is desperate for more people to enter the cybersecurity industry (but not like this). Sadly there are so few teachers left with any passion let alone expertise in computer science, the kid didn’t stand a chance.
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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?
deleted by creator
Steal a couple thousands with identity fraud and account hacking? Jail time, no jobs that need cybersec clearance will touch you with a ten foot pole.
Steal millions+ from multiple large corpos with dedicated cybersec, and you’ll be getting offers out the wazoo, but you’ll be rejecting them because you’re already working for some think tank attached to the NSA.
Source: I made it up