Of course. They have a long and proud tradition of getting together and laughing at poor information security. Some of the hack-fests are truly spectacular.
Not all hackers are bad guys. One of the founders of the Black Hat conference was recently added to an advisory body for the Department of Homeland Security. Many good guy hackers have been arrested in the past when attending the Black Hat because they dared to point a spotlight on the flaws.
That said, some real bad guys do attend the conferences but rarely announce themselves. Btw, the update features and SSL interaction problems aren't new, just finally getting some press.
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Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu:
Classic Microsoft complacency.
Microsoft... "We're looking into it."
Mozilla... "We'll have it fixed this week."
Being a Mozilla user I was pleased to read that
:-)
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btw, just in case that anyone thinks that information of any kind is safe, here is a report about hacking the international banking system as considered by the US in 2003.
excerpt:
It would have been the most far-reaching case of computer sabotage in history. In 2003, the Pentagon and American intelligence agencies made plans for a cyberattack to freeze billions of dollars in the bank accounts of Saddam Hussein and cripple his government’s financial system before the United States invaded Iraq. He would have no money for war supplies. No money to pay troops.
“We knew we could pull it off — we had the tools,” said one senior official who worked at the Pentagon when the highly classified plan was developed.
But the attack never got the green light. Bush administration officials worried that the effects would not be limited to Iraq but would instead create worldwide financial havoc, spreading across the Middle East to Europe and perhaps to the United States.
full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us...2cyber.html?hp
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