Re: NEWS: Hacker collective goes legit with $10M in backing

[XS <xshahy@yahoo.com>]

[: hacktivism :]


One thing would like to comment on is; as long as the
purpose is to compete in an open market with
legitimate objective, of course then let them, one
principal of economics is that more competition better
quality produced goods (and technology is understood
as a good) so?

Peace
XS

--- Steven Green <sgreen@gobeyond.net> wrote:
> [: hacktivism :]
> 
> 
> "Hacker collective goes legit with $10M in backing"
> Cult of the Dead Cow: L0pht members start security
> firm @Stake
> by David Akin
> Financial Post 
> 
> --
> Photo by: Dana Smith, Black Star of:
> The L0pht boys, from left: Silicosis; Brian
> Oblivion; John Tan; Mudge;
> Kingpin, standing; Space rogue, front; Weld pond;
> and Dildog.
> --
>  
> Vilified last summer as a threat to the security of
> computer systems
> everywhere, members of the hacker think-tank L0pht
> Heavy Industries have
> transformed themselves into a legitimate computer
> security firm backed by
> $10-million in venture capital. 
> 
> L0pht officially shut its clubhouse doors on the
> weekend and its members
> were absorbed into @Stake, which aims to be a
> mainstream Internet security
> firm. 
> 
> L0pht -- it's pronounced loft and the second
> character in the name is a
> zero -- has been closely affiliated with the Cult of
> the Dead Cow, the
> elite hacker collective that has been publishing and
> writing about
> computer geek culture since 1984. Some members of
> L0pht are also members
> of the invitation-only crew that is Cult of the Dead
> Cow or cDc. L0pht has
> focused more on the technical ins and outs of
> computers,
> telecommunications networks and security, while cDc
> has been more
> interested in vision, strategy, education and
> description. 
> 
> It has been cDc's success in fulfilling that role
> that has made it the
> Montreal Canadiens of the hacking underground and,
> to the non-hacking
> community, helped foster the public awareness that
> has helped L0pht and
> other hackers become respected and sought-after
> sources for computer
> security. 
> 
> "The cDc has always been a leader in the hacking
> community," said Oxblood
> Ruffin, cDc's minister of information and the
> group's only Canadian
> member. "Its membership from day one has always been
> a who's who of the
> hacker community." 
> 
> L0pht's move into the mainstream began in February. 
> 
> The world's most popular Web sites were under attack
> from one or more
> vandals. Yahoo, then eBay, then CNN and others went
> offline for several
> hours at a time, crushed under the weight of a flood
> of meaningless
> packets of data. The FBI was quickly called in, the
> alarms were sounded,
> and politicians and the press were soon talking
> about cyberterrorists as
> if the vandals were wielding guns and bombs instead
> of some computer
> source code widely and freely available on the Web. 
> 
> Bill Clinton, the U.S. president, convened a
> computer security summit and
> invited representatives from the U.S. defence
> establishment, the most
> prestigious academic computer science departments,
> and the top companies
> in the Internet and software industries. 
> 
> To this august collection of experts, one other
> person was summoned. He is
> Mudge, a long-haired hacker who happens to be a
> member of cDc and L0pht
> and is one of the world's top experts on hacker
> attacks. 
> 
> Mudge's inclusion at this White House roundtable was
> an encouraging sign
> for members of L0pht, cDc and other hacker groups
> who have complained for
> years, but with little success, that they have been
> misunderstood by the
> public. It has been their claim, spelled out in text
> files posted at
> electronic bulletin board services, that they are
> explorers and
> discoverers, aiding the cause of safe and secure
> computing by probing for
> weaknesses and flaws. 
> 
> This week in Toronto, hundreds of academics,
> hackers, visionaries and
> activists from around the world will convene at the
> Computers, Freedom and
> Privacy conference, where the protection of privacy
> and individual rights
> tops the agenda. Members of several hacker
> collectives are also likely to
> be in Toronto for the conference, although it's
> unclear if anyone from cDc
> will be on hand. 
> 
> Mudge, who declined an interview, probably will stay
> in Boston where he is
> now vice-president of research and development for
> @Stake. 
> 
> Executives from Montreal's Zero-Knowledge Systems
> Inc., maker of a
> software tool that gives consumers the ability to
> protect their privacy
> online, will be prominent players at the Toronto
> conference. Neal
> Stephenson, who fills his fiction works like
> Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash
> with hacker heroes, will deliver a speech. Whitfield
> Diffie, who
> practically invented public key cryptography, will
> discuss encryption and
> security. 
> 
> But while L0pht is finished, cDc continues to
> thrive. 
> 
> Its co-founders are Grandmaster Ratte and Franken
> Gibe, who, like every
> cDc member, prefer to protect their real identities.
> Some will allow their
> photographs to be taken but none are keen to let you
> know who they really
> are. Some are worried about threats to their
> physical safety; others have
> "legitimate" jobs for top Silicon Valley firms and
> worry their employer
> may not see the value of employing a cDc member.
> Still others just think
> it's cool to be known only by a hacker handle. 
> 
> Many of cDc's members have day jobs with computer
> companies but many
> don't. One is a professional soccer player, another
> is a Harvard
> University professor and another is a graphics
> artist. 
> 
> Grandmaster Ratte, who will turn 30 this year, has a
> day job as a hip-hop
> producer. A white kid from Lubbock, Tex., he just
> moved to Harlem in New
> York City where he lives in an almost all-black
> neighbourhood. At DefCon,
> he played emcee for the B02K event. And with his
> long brown hair hanging
> down under a baseball cap and his aggressive, DefJam
> style of rapping, he
> looked and sounded more than a little like rap
> superstar Kid Rock. 
> 
> Grandmaster Ratte and Franken were teenage outsiders
> growing up in Lubbock
> in 1984. They would spend some of their offline time
> goofing around in, or
> so the legend goes, an old abandoned abattoir
> 
> ---
> 
>
[http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost.asp?s2=eworld&f=000404/250090.html]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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