An amusing article from the D&C.  A convention at the Doubletree Hotel in Henrietta, dubbed “Hackerfest,” was held today.  It’s focus is security technology, from software to hardware.  But what I find amusing is the sense the author gives of a room full of people dying to make networks more secure:

Computer technology focus of Hackerfest || Democrat & Chronicle: Business

This morning, scores of the people whose job it is to make sure that network is secure and and functional crowded into the Doubletree Hotel in Henrietta for Hackerfest 2007. The annual event, put on by Rochester tech firm Dox Electronics Inc., saw vendors pitching everything from spam filters to backup generators and potential customers looking for the best and new technology for their employers’ information technology systems.

Look, in order to know how to secure a system, you first need to know how to hack a system.  Not to alarm you, or anything, but “security experts” are the most potently dangerous hackers on the planet, and you can’t be a good tech without analyzing every single tool for it’s weaknesses.  That’s just part and parcel of what security gearheads are all about.

Not that everyone at the convention was looking to hack into the latest and greatest system.  Of course not.  But to say a convention like this is exclusively for those “whose job it is to make sure that network is secure” is like saying that those cool water pipes at Skye High are for tobacco use only.

Technorati Tags: Hackerfest, Hackers, Security