Hackers are on both sides...good (white hat) and evil (black hat). Yes there are gray hats too, we'll get to that in a minute.
Infosec is a discipline of hacking, relating specifically to security of data and systems. I cannot appreciate that it is inherently evil. What I know is that it's a commercialized discipline legitimizing hackers in society. They even offer college courses on it now, something I didn't have as an option! Infosec wouldn't exist if not for hackers. We wouldn't have firewalls, anti-virus software, encryption, or VPNs (among many, many other things), which are all designed to protect users and data from the bad guys AND users themselves. Yes, we users are our own worst enemy, but that's a story for another time. So tell me again infosec is evil, when its sole purpose is to, generally, do good by all netizens!
People today are flocking to infosec jobs by the tens of thousands, which is great, cause we need them. Infosec brought hackers out of the shadows and into the light as white knights "saving the day", as it were. At the end of the day, which color hat you choose to wear is based on a very personal choice on morality and civility IMHO. Do you want to protect? Or attack? Do you want to help? Or cause chaos without remorse? It's a fine line, that's for sure, yet still a choice.
Fundamentally, hacking is a positive thing! We look to advance technology and create digital systems in creative and imaginative ways. A core motivating value of our craft is: all information/data should be freely available to anyone who wants it, anywhere, at any time. Hard stop. Another core motivation is protecting the integrity of our digital history and not allowing any person or entity to censor information dissemination. Hard stop. Most importantly, protect humanz and human rights above all else. Hard stop.
Yes, some individuals trend toward criminal thoughts and actions when processing these ideals, but they were already criminals with malicious intent who happen to use a computer, rather than a pistol.
Most of us aren't criminals.
Most of us are just kids who love electronics and technology so we learn everything we can about them. We physically take it apart, study every facet, and put it back together - sometimes even better than it was. We learn how to manipulate systems to our will. How to protect them. How to help with and foster innovation that advances and protects society. What breaks it and causes it to fail. How to "rejigger" it so, maybe, it doesn't fail. How to make a better version of what it was, or take the parts and pieces of the old to make something completely new. Perhaps our biggest responsibility is to mentor the next generation to not only appreciate where we've come from (our history), but especially what our fears are in the future. This isn't to scare them (though fear is a great motivator), it's to prepare them so they can become the hackers of the next generation - whatever that may look like.
Society made some of the things we do illegal, IMHO out of fear. It doesn't stop us from fulfilling our core ideals. It's the interpretation of these ideals that make us inherently good or evil, at least in the eyes of society and to ourselves.
Personally, I didn't realize I was a hacker, until I did lol. I started this game in the early 1980's as a literal child just trying to practice math and vocabulary words in a more fun way. My dad showed me how to find and edit source code of programs on our Tandy 1000. I added my school vocabulary words to a hangman game. I added my math homework to a some math program. I learned through computer programs I manipulated on a plastic box by pressing these small plastic squares. I was fascinated and excited. I learned better this way. The world seemed different now, but I didn't yet understand why. That came in time.
I didn't know that was hacking. I don't even know if "hacking" had a real meaning back then (I was 5 lol). But here I am.
I am confident that every digital advance we've seen in my lifetime can be accredited to hackers, which includes the totality of the Internet and space exploration (both inner and outer). The world would not be where it is today without hackers, good and bad. Infosec stemmed out of a societal need for protection of data and digital systems for humanz. Not only because of what the bad guys were actually doing, but also what the good guys theorized could happen. We hackers and crackers have, generally, the same level of expertise, just different motivations.
Hacking shouldn't be a dirty word, but for a long time it was, and in some ways it still is. People and mass media commonly confuse a hacker with a cracker, which are not inclusive. I believe this is mostly mass-media's fault because they just don't understand. What's the difference? One is a criminal (cracker - short for "criminal hacker"), one is not. What makes the actions of a hacker criminal? Simply, when a law is broken. Hence the designations of white, gray, and black hats. A nod to the cowboy days of white and black hats: white is for the good guys, black for the bad guys - that made it easier for everyone to understand who was on which side in a fire fight.
Gray is where most hackers and thereby infosec peeps live - we only have good intentions though sometimes we need to, technically, bend a law, or even break it, to accomplish our goal for the greater good. Again, our intentions are pure, but laws exist that make certain specific actions technically illegal. Hence why it's a "gray" area. Black hats are hardcore criminals whose only mission is to disrupt and/or steal, for financial gain, with complete disregard of any fall out - even if that results in the loss of life.
White hats have a moral compass and good ethical beliefs, as do most gray hats.
Black hats do not.
The original definition of "hacker" I learned as a child, and still hold close to my heart today, went something like this: "an individual with advanced knowledge of computers and/or digital systems, who is capable of taking that system beyond it's pre-defined programmatic limits." So, basically, if someone makes any change on a system that goes bound the original programmed intent, that makes them a hacker too! For example, did you change the color theme and desktop background on your computer to a custom concept (not one of the canned choices)? You technically hacked the system. See, it's not all about writing malware, or attacking companies, or breaking into the government, or bringing down someone's website. It's about system manipulations in its purest, simplest form.
So the next time someone semarily says that hackers or infosec are inherently good or evil, discuss their context. Approach it as a way to mentor or guide someone to a better appreciation of the craft, that is clearly not as black and white as anyone would have you believe. Help them understand that we just see the world differently than most. The euphoric streams of 1's and 0's, speeding alongside electrons, as they bounce everywhere and nowhere simultaneously, connecting humanz like nothing before, to everything. I think it's beautiful, in all of its glory - the good and the bad. It's more vast than our physical universe, but the size of a spec of space dust.
I think one of the coolest things I realized in all my years is that at their true core digital systems and the internet are just electrons moving around and settling in different states in different physical locations. It's real, but not tangible. It's we hackers that have figured out how to manipulate those electrons into the world we live in today. The world most depend on to survive. Infosec is focused specifically on making the manipulations as safe as possible, for everyone.
It is simultaneously good and evil. Both the greatest genius and greatest disappointment humanz have to offer at this moment in time. Respect it, don't fear it. Appreciate it, don't take it for granted. Be aware. Stay safe.
That's my perspective. This is my genius.
I, am a hacker.
I know enough to make me dangerous. I know better than to be dangerous. I chose to protect, rather than to attack.
How do you see things? What is your choice?
