have you heard about it?

rono

www.blackhat.com is this a ethical website?

Sie

It depends on your view.

It highlights exploits/skills etc that hackers use to compromise systems thus teaching sys admins what hackers already know.

However:

It also teachs would be hackers the exact same thing.

It is proberbly producing more secure systems but also more people to hack the less secure ones.

If you do it then people are aware of how hackers work, but they also produce more hackers.

If you dont do it then people are less likely to know what goes on, hackers will still be out there but it wont create anymore.

I cant decide if its good or not.

Its a good business idea because its practically marketed as take part in this or hackers who do take part may know what you dont.

Its a good and bad idea at the same time.

The question is how legal is it?

rono

thansk for your comment...

I've looked at some security websites to get an ideea on what each are focused and ended up at blackhat...but no,I'll start with security+ first,since GIAC have some big prices on their online training.

Sie

An after thought.

If this is not quite 'ethically' right because it is teaching or informing would-be hackers then can it be argued sites like microsofts security bulletins are informing hackers also??

I suppose the big question is what degree of information is provided to what degree of the public??

sprkymrk

The Black Hat conferences in Las Vegas usually happen about a week before the DefCon conference and attract a huge following. You will find that Black Hat attracts more industry professionals and government security folks while DefCon attracts the younger hacker crowd (as a generalization only). This is largely due to the costs involved (DefCon is $60 to attend while BlackHat is over a grand).

At any rate I would consider BlackHat to be another organization similar to SANS.org (who also host expensive but excellent training programs).