A Well Known But Overlooked Threat to Hackers: Themselves

The recent HNN article "Scene Whores" by Erik Parker was advertised as "controversial". There is a fine difference between "controversy" and "shock tactics". The first is intended to provoke discussion to reveal opposing sides of an issue. The second is intended to provoke outrage for the purposes of cheap publicity. I work in a city that is home to more radio "Shock Jocks" than any other. I am, unfortunately, well aware of the dangers of falling into the trap of responding to such tactics. For any who really believe the emotional and sexist ramblings of that article: no one will change your mind - and that is, indeed, unfortunate. For the others who just view it as harmless babble, I intend to prove that it is, indeed, harmful. The article promises to reveal an overlooked threat to hackers. It delivers nothing more than the emotional outburst of someone who was jilted. It should probably be simply dismissed for the immature rambling that it is. I cannot do so. Not because I am a woman - because I am a security professional who will not let pass an article that endorses FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). This may not have been the intent, but it was the result. In this article, Mr. Parker comes to the conclusion that Scene Whores are female and hackers are male: "I will always refer to woman as the scene whores, and use 'she' when speaking about scene whores. The reasoning behind this is, the majority of hackers are men.

One passage brought to mind a scene in Dr. Strangelove where the general warns that women steal "our precious bodily fluids": " They are a real threat. They waste our time, ruin friendships, cause chaos between hackers, and generally ruin periods of our life"

What the article succeeded in doing was to reinforce the stereotype that women have only one purpose in the technical world - sex. Further, it supports the medieval belief that women are evil and must be kept in their place: "Hopefully we can start identifying scene whores quicker, and securing ourselves against them quicker, and put them out of commission."

I guess the next Defcon Event will be The Scene Whore Trials.. followed by burning them at the stake. Since the only method suggested to determine who these evil Scene Whores are is one of gender, all women must be guilty: "Now the hard part is.. To determine which ones aren't scene whores. The ones who have been with other hackers, but are true and honest, and like you for who you are. I can't say the best way to determine this. I think it is easier to just try and detect the scene whores, and eliminate them, than to try and find a way to detect non-scene whores, if that makes any sense to you. " No, it does not make sense..

Hackers were not let off the hook of stereotyping either and the image of the "drugged out hacker" was also reinforced - along with gratuitous ego-feeding: "We are a rare species I suppose, we are in an age where we wear what we want, we don't necessarily need a college background, we are making 6 digit figures, and setting the rules for our selves. Anyway you look at it, scene whores can look and think that we have power, money, and we are the stereo typed "cool". Some of us are all of the above, and into drugs, and many girls find drugs to be an attractive feature."

The problems of stereotyping

The hacker community should be well aware of the handicap of a stereotyped image. A parody of this is on 2600:
http://www.2600.com/hacked_pages/prop/prop_pages /2600/hax0r.html

Of particular interest is:
"Also, all hax0rs are racist, sexist, apocolyptic bastards, so support your local redneck crackhead klan or whatever you call the kkk. Never ever forget to refer to women as pussy and remember you can buy love (ie prostitution; because sex and love are exactly the same thing."

Several pioneers in the hacking community are to be commended for their efforts in overcoming these stereotypes. Most notably, the L0pht has had zero tolerance for the media portraying hackers as malevolent criminals intent on destroying computer systems. How did this stereotype come to exist in the first place? The simple truth is hard to swallow: there were (and still are!) hackers who destroy systems. In an effort to make a distinction between criminal hackers and "harmless" hackers, all sorts of euphemisms were employed like "white hat hackers" and "black hat hackers". Today, the politcally correct term for criminal hackers is "crackers". It seems that whenever an undesireable group tarnishes the name of "hackers", a new term is invented. A prime example of this is the recent CDUniverse extortion story.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/ 0,1282,33563-2,00.html
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586, 2420863,00.html?chkpt=zdnntop

In the above articles the point is made that the extortionist is not a "hacker". He's a "Data thief", "intruder", "extortionist" or "cracker" - anything but a hacker. I'm sorry, but like it or not, he's a hacker. He may also be a crook, but he used computer skills to bypass a system's security. The fact that he used the results to commit a crime is separate, but doesn't change the fact that he's a hacker.

As a woman in technology, I don't have the luxury of claiming that women who behave badly are not women. I can't deny that they are women. What I can do is distinguish what they are from what they've done and treat them as the separate issues that they are. When you identify distasteful actions as being taken by "women", we are all tarred with the action - and all have to suffer the consequences. This is why I must object to the simplistic characterization of "scene whores" as women and "hackers" as men.

To understand the term "Scene Whore", let's separate the components of the term.

Whore The term "whore" is defined by Webster's dictionary to mean "a woman who practices promiscuous sexual intercourse esp. for hire: PROSTITUTE

The term "prostitute" has several definitions. The one that I think best fits is "a person who deliberately debases himself or his talents (as for money)"

The hacker community has labeled J.P. Vranesevich of AntiOnline a "scene whore" because it is felt that he sold out the hacker community for the sake of corporate backing. True or not, this attitude demonstrates that the hacker community defines a "scene whore" as a person who debases themselves for profit - not simply a person who has sex.

The Hacker Scene
The "scene" does indeed appear to be sexist - why else would there be a "Babes of Defcon" contest?
http://www.01grafx.com/html/babesofdefcon7.html

I cannot comment with authority on the hacker "scene" since I've never attended Defcon (specifically because of the atmosphere). Perhaps that is why it was so unfathomable to me why women at the Chaos Computer Club required their own "hacking room" ( http://www.wired.com/news/women/0,1540,33346,00.html). Why would they choose to segregate themselves from the other hackers? Perhaps they sought an atmosphere where they would not be considered "meat". I do recall how difficult it was in 1980 to be the only female in many of my classes at Polytech (and the rumours that I slept with everybody). Still, I would not like to attend a conference that would exclude my male friends.

A Well Known But Overlooked Threat to Hackers: Themselves
In the U.S., we have been conditioned to believe that we are not responsible for our actions. This is wrong. You are responsible for your own indiscretions and must suffer the consequences of your actions. This has nothing to do with "hacking" or gender or even age. We have had a clear demonstration of faulty judgement in President Clinton. Shouldn't a man who was a Rhodes scholar have known better than to seek cheap gratification with an intern? While she was portrayed as the "temptress", he can hardly cry "rape". It is insulting to men to suggest that they cannot show some self control. If a hacker cannot show the self control to be wary of who they get romantically involved with - male or female - they deserve to suffer the consequences of their actions. When a person claiming to be a hacker makes absurd statements, the reputation of all hackers is tarnished.