The word hacker is much misused, as anyone who knows me knows I frequently complain.
It carries such negative connotations these days that even the suggestion that one “hire a hacker” to test one’s network makes people’s hackles rise. But is it really true that hackers are criminals, untrustworthy, risky? J. Oquendo at Infiltrated.net took a good hard look:
For the past decade, we have been hearing, and reading those pesky insider, outsider threats coupled with the familiar “thou shall not hire a hacker” themes. In every single instance, the expert behind the statement offers some rationale behind it, some magical number, or the impression that the situation is just so dire….
So what are the statistics behind hacking, recidivism, the insider and outsider threats? No one has taken a hard look at it until now. After not being able to locate any data containing anything of use, I decided to put together the numbers based on publicly available information…
In any event, the numbers are as follows: There were 8 total re-offenses (2.13% recidivism rate), insiders accounted for 15.466% (of this, 38% were law enforcement or government employee insiders). Former employees accounted for 8.26%, third party contractors came in at 4%, and lastly, law enforcement and government abuse totaled 6.4%. The average age of a re-offender was 26.5, the average re-offense time occurred within one year.
Look at that: a 2% reoffense rate! By that measure, a convicted “hacker” might be the safest hire you can make. Former employees are far more dangerous, and law enforcement insiders are particularly dangerous … to law enforcement.
Read the whole article at http://www.infiltrated.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=59.
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