Having been practicing information security on a freelance basis for roughly 2 years now, I’ve quickly come to learn that the information security industry is very incestuous – teeming with folks that think the standard “how to survive prison” methodology works for information security. Find someone who’s made a name for themselves, beat the everliving crap out of them, assume their former glory. This is a problem. Primarily because it doesn’t work, and secondly because nobody has ever been able to do it right and get their intended results.
Moreso is a problem when people who have openly admitted their noviceness in linux, security and other things of a technical nature decide to take up a crusade. They’re loud, boisterous and spend lots of energy on a ’cause’ that they simply don’t understand. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about these people is an angry neanderthal – angry that the wind blew out his fire, who then goes and bludgeons his neighbor with a rock out of rage, or the salem witch trials where women were called out as witches and burned alive, their pleas of innocence ignored.
This is exactly what I’m dealing with – novices, newbies and beginners who know little to nothing about information security, the industry surrounding it – picking up a torch and going on a crusade because of something they don’t understand.
I’ve been dealing with a small handful of these people, and it seems the further along I get in growing my business, the more opportunity these trolls think they have to shoot me down. I’m going to draw out, chronologically the whole series of events from then until now – including how I’ve contacted attorneys, sent cease and desist notices, and how I personally have suffered, and the friends and loves ones around me have have suffered because two guys in Riverside simply cannot act like adults. It’s a long ride, but for those interested in the whole story, end to end, read on.
I apologize to those who’s names I’m about to drop, who I told I’d keep out of this – but at this point it’s unavoidable. I have to name names to tell the story.
I know two trolls. Roger Rustad, and David Kaiser – they run socallinux.org.