>Without hackers - whitehat or blackhat, NONE OF THE SECURITY THREATS >WOULD MATTER.

What an innocent and naive world you must live in to think that we can just blame everyone, especially the "hackers" for the world?s computer security problems.

I assume that you equate "hackers" with criminals. These are the people that, in your words, create spam, spyware, publish and use computer security vulnerabilities. (you even count computer security consultants)

The reason I say that you're naive is that it would be like blaming all "bad" things in the world on the "bad" people. Or in your words "without criminals there would be no crime [by definition]?. You ignore what causes crime and criminal behavior. You ignore the poverty and despair of the world. You ignore the childhood adolescent pranks of the world. You ignore corporate greed. You ignore the righteous indignation of religious conflicts.

The current status of security on the internet is a conflict between using the social and technical means to protect yourself or some entity and the social and technical means by which people break down those barriers. If you removed guns from criminals, crime would be caused by some other weapon. One could argue that might be better, but the fact remains the criminal intent and motivation are still there. It is naive to think that you can suddenly 'turn back time' and remove crime on the internet by blaming "hackers".

On the other hand I think you give too much credit to "hackers" as if "they" with some singular conscious have made the internet evolve (or ?de-evolve?) into what it is today. Some of your ?hackers? may have been irresponsible in releasing computer security vulnerabilities. Others may have acted in malice while releasing a virus or a worm. ?Hackers? who publish security vulnerabilities or security tools merely create the means to perform a criminal act. What ?hacking? is there in a Nigerian SPAM? Using email and crafting tricky and enticing words?

By this logic we need to condemn the Chinese for inventing gun power, which lead to cannons and guns because without those we would have never had wars and modern violent criminal acts. We should also defame Albert Einstein for he is the forefather of the nuclear Mutally-Assusured-Destruction era of the cold war and our current concern with North Korea.

I understand that you were asked directly the ?blame? question, but this is not the only time you have lashed out against everyone and ?hackers?. What good is blaming people? Do you long for the ?utopia? that the internet ?used to be?, where geekhood was your machismo and technical smarts could control the bad things? Perhaps saddened by the corporate takeover of your internet (including security products)? Or are you frustrated that all your efforts on making security products have not solved the world?s problems. Is your ego that large? Or is that you are smarter than all of us and realize that saying controversial statements is a good way to stay relevant and get on the speaking circuit?



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