Apparently Black Hats Can’t Reform Their Evil Ways

Via Slashdot, I came across this entertaining article at ZDNet called “Do Former Black Hats Make Good Hires?” It asks the brain-busting question of whether black hats should be hired for legit positions. The article approaches the question as if it has the same moral weight of “Shuld We Treet Coloreds Lahk Reel Peepul?” or “Should Sweatshop Kids Get Weekends Off?” Paul Ducklin, CTO of Sophos, has the best quote in the article:

“Let’s say that you’re shot during a mugging [incident]. As you drift into unconsciousness, would you find yourself saying ‘Gosh, I hope the surgeon who operates on me used to be a street criminal because he must really understand gunshot wounds well if he actually shot the people?’ You wouldn’t think that.”

The article then adds:

He noted that there are currently many former black hats who are “really, really smart” and “with a bit of nurturing and guidance”, were able to transform into good security researchers.

See, Black Hats? With a little nurturing and guidance, someday you all can become real boys! We all know that without said nurture and guidance, unsupervised black hats will relapse like Tom Sizemore between movie roles, and of course we all know that an unleashed black hat will plunder and burn the company’s virtual village, Genghis Khan-style.

This article isn’t making stereotypes and treating black hats as subhuman creatures incapable of intelligence, conscience, and self-control. No, not at all!