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The Happy Hacker


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Professional Hacker James Landis guides us through his world of white-hat hacking.
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10 responses // The Happy Hacker

  • nice pod! liked the pixelated visual transitions.
    regina
  • This was really well put together and quite an interesting topic. I want to know so much more about white-collar hacking now. Great work.
    image0434
  • very well shot and edited piece, I had no idea what white hat hacking was until this pod! Interesting character, would have loved to see more about this career in hacking and how he began, what other systems he infiltrated etc... well done!
    turkish_delight
  • clearly professional hacking pays!
    ipodrulz
  • Really interesting piece, I would love an even longer one that goes into more detail.
    dcuisinot
  • hmm... hacker... nope, cracking is what this about. hackers are creative code monkeys. Read your MIT dictionaries.

    Though, yes this does pay well but its also very hard to get into and costly too. You need to get Certs in Red Hat Security, Microsoft Security, and your Ethical Hacking Cert. All publicly available, but in the thousands just for the few weeks it takes to sit down behind a computer and have an instructor teach you the stuff.

    The other way of going is playing the wargames, but those have have been closed down since the patriot act. And learn Linux, and a large list of open source technologies. This one takes years. Have fun at defcon with this path. ;)

    Either way you go, most companies will not hire a hacker. You'll have to start your own tech firm dealing with infosec. That's what happened to Mitnick after E and the gang at 2600 and EFF helped cut down his sentence.

    And yes, I am a profession hacker. I'm also a professional Blogger, Graphic Designer and Web Developer. but these are all just titles for the same thing, creative and smart person that plays with computers to express ones self and learn.
    denzuko
  • I disagree that the computer industry is very hard and costly to get into. There are currently no certifications that even measure application security ability. In fact, often I've found that the more certifications a candidate has, the less skilled he turns out to be!

    Yes, you need to be willing to learn and have certain degree of technical aptitude, but many of the smartest people I've worked with don't even have college degrees, let alone the certification alphabet soup. With a good mentor and a solid few months of hands-on, it's very easy to become qualified for the myriad "hacking" jobs out there today.

    It's true that most companies will not hire you directly for consulting work until you've got a strong history/reputation (and a lot of insurance). However, all consulting companies are desperate for new people, so that point is moot if we're talking about getting your foot in the door.

    This industry is on the bleeding edge right now. It's very easy to make a name for yourself and work on something cool and pioneering. We need all the smart people we can find to help win the software security war!
    elspood
  • Nice Pod, although a little scary!
    TylerW
  • Well elspood, you are quite true in a lot of that and I would rather agree with you on the mentor thing. Being one of the few members of hDc still in "the game" as it where. I know how that one goes.. I've tried to return the favor in mentoring a few people. But it all breaks down to taking street credit and all that geek points and turning it into business credit.

    My thought on that though, is simple. If your lucky enough to find a mentor now a days then major congrates, but you'll still need to learn things hands on. Then after you have the street credit and can easily pull anything off, go and take the certification course. Its going to be a breeze and you'll end up picking up on the flaws instantly. It does work, you'll have it both ways.
    denzuko
  • Hey I really like your work. This pod rocks. I really dig the style and the intro works really well. Did you edit it yourself?


    Checkout my Pod The Break in the SilverDoc's film festival catagory. Let me know what you think?

    Have you done any other work outside of Current?
    Rojofilms

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