[ISN] Commentary: The Future of InfoSec News! (Part II)

From: William Knowles (wkat_private)
Date: Fri Jul 27 2001 - 02:44:24 PDT

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    Well for the last week I haven't posted a thing to the list and many
    of you have been wondering what has happened. I could say that I was
    working on my tan in the south of France, out hunting for the real
    killers with O.J. Simpson, or learning the intricacies of piloting a
    MH-60L from a pair of 160th SOAR pilots.
    
    Actually if I had my choice, I would take the last one, Hovering a
    helicopter is hard enough, but to be able to do it under fire, while
    delivering your operators, and only six to twelve inches from top of
    the telephone poles in your landing zone earned my respect the instant
    I learned of such amazing pilots.
    
    
    Basically the comment below was the begining of the end, I bashed
    Securityfocus one too many times, (Twice if you were keeping score at
    home.) While we have the Canadians to thank for inventing the sport of
    basketball, I don't think the boys and girls at Securityfocus pay much
    attention to baseball because its usually three strikes and you're
    out of the game.
    
    > Wait, what is this about you and Packetstormsecurity.org?
    >
    > I was reeled into being the media liaison for Packetstormsecurity
    > which was announced in Las Vegas at Defcon 9 as going back to its
    > roots & into public hands, publishing all information security
    > information as it comes available, all open source, all free, all
    > the time. With no ads, no spin, no recommendations of friends
    > security companies, (Including my own) no recommendations for
    > security software, (even if they give packetstormsecurity.org
    > $1,000,000 U.S.D. to say really nice things about them) this will
    > force security sites like SecurityFocus and iDefense and many
    > others to possibly rethink their business models since who on a
    > limited infosec budget will want to spend their money for
    > something they could get for free.
    
    While I don't know anything about SecurityFocus' business plan outside
    what I've heard about in PRNewswire, Upside, Red Herring, and
    channelling J. Edgar Hoover in Jennifer Lopez's infamous lean green
    Versace dress (Shudder...) It was all rumors SO... since I am not
    qualified to comment on their business plan, I have no business to
    tell them to rethink their business plan(s).
    
    Regardless of whether or not SecurityFocus has commercial offerings, I
    understand they spend a little over half a million dollars a year
    providing free services to the security community and industry.
    
    But on the same token, I've succeeded in royally pissing off Alfred
    Huger, & the happy staff at Securityfocus wanted to take over the
    daily moderation of ISN from me as a condition of staying there so I
    wouldn't be able to bash them again.  (At least until I proved my
    trustworthyness) I promised I wouldn't say anything negative about
    Securityfocus if I still had the list hosted there and I was still in
    control of moderating it, that wasn't good enough for them, so I
    basically took my bat and ball and took a little walk over to
    Attrition.org
    
    So the list is being temporarily hosted here at Attrition.org until I
    get a box for C4I.org/infosecnews.org where things will eventually be
    hosted permanently.  I have to wonder with all the other lists at
    Securityfocus, how many of them are under their direct editorial
    control from other moderators pissing them off?
    
    I should hope that I am their first and hopefully the last moderator
    to do so, and right about now I should probably be looking into hiring
    a former JTF-2 operator to be in my shadow if I have any thoughts of
    attending any information security conferences in Canada. :)
    
    I have been cooking up a few ideas to pay for a 1U server to stick in
    a colocation facility, (Before you offer, I do have one lined up,
    Thanks!) one of those plans was while in Las Vegas to sell C4I.org
    shirts, but that was a collective clusterfuck, I didn't do as good of
    a job with the final film, so the image on the back came out dark, and
    my screenprinter screwed the job up further. They were printed on the
    best shirt money could buy, (Fruit-of-the-Loom Lofteez) and I wasn't
    really happy selling them at the price I did. ($20.00 each).
    
    I ended up giving alot away to friends, fans, Feds, parties attending
    Defcon under an unoffical cover :), prizes for Capture the Flag, and
    as the off-duty shirt for the Goons.
    
    Selling shirts for a server was a bust, I have a few other ideas I am
    exploring and its only a matter of time before I have them figured
    out.
    
    I hope this answers most of the questions that many of you have been
    asking, I really didn't want to send out a canned response to all of
    you, but to try to be honest and explain what happened.
    
    Cheers!
    
    William Knowles
    Moderator/Editor
    InfoSec News
    wkat_private
    
    
    
    *==============================================================*
    "Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
    without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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