Re: [LUG] shellshock to the rescue

First - thanks for the follow up. This has been very interesting and it's good to know part of the outcome. I don't doubt the parents were entirely ignorant.

"Who's watching us to make sure we only use our powers for 'good'?" ÂThat's easy. You. YourÂconscience is.ÂPeople aren't their own best judges, and the human mind can justify a whole realm of unjustifiable acts, and the amount of computer crime suggests they're oftenÂsuccessfulÂin convincing themselves.ÂComputer crime is usually unreported and when it is, not acted upon unless there's another agenda at play (Yewtree, Defence, Politics). The police in all countries are woefully under equipped to deal with this new world.

"With great power comes great responsibility", innit.

Ref your quandry.Â

If you go black hat, the people you will be working alongside will sometimes be of the same calibre as the young chap you've talked about - and worse. Cracking a wordpress site might be trivial to you on a technical level, but who can say whether it's right or wrong morally? What will happen after you grant access to a third party - will they then go on to coerce under age girls once you've opened the door? Â("Send us naked pics and I'll give you back your site."). You'd be an accomplice and enabler to that scenario and once you've done your part, you have no more control or knowledge, necessarily. (If you use a monitor/blocker and deny somebody what they paid for because you don't agree with it, you're not going to get a lot of repeat business) A lot of these people are very good at what they do, and they'd be seeking to manage you as well as the targets. Why pay you 5k each crack if they can find something and blackmail you to do it for free? Â

You've clearly struggled with what you've done and discovered in this one case; how will that sit with you when you're doing more frequent sewer journeys? Or working for people that steal, extort and manipulate others in this world? Â

You say you're happier breaking into rather than fixing things. What's the motivation for that? The mental challenge? Showing off? (That's not being rude btw - verifying your self-worth by showing how clever you are is a base human trait)

Or is it interesting because it's illicit? If so, will that attraction fade once it becomes humdrum through familiarity, like anything else?

The actions of you and your friends recently are those of white knights, but the decision in front of you has the potential to directly oppose that stance. That's such a huge shift in morality I can't imagine it's easy.

You asked a public list what to do so invited judgement - you'll have guessed what I would do, but that's not relevant and I've tried not to push my own agenda too hard.

I look forwards to the other replies.